Borderline Galaxies: Trooper to Hunter
by ARCCaptainFordo
Summary: This story is a crossover story with Borderlands and Star Wars starting sometime before the Vault Hunters got on the train. Find out how an ARC Trooper learns to deal with the complete freedom of making his own decisions on his journey through the events of the events of the game, his presence having an effect on some of them. Zaige, AxtonxMaya
1. Chapter 1

**Key- **_Italic_ for thoughts

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gearbox, or any of their IPs…**

**Chapter 1**

_"The Republic was pulling out from Felucia; bad intel, heavy droid presence, impossible terrain and wildlife, take your pick; they were all equally responsible" thought ARC-52 Commander "Tracyn Verda" (Translating into fire warrior) or just "Tracyn" for short. He sat with his helmeted head in his hands, mulling over the final moments of the evacuation as he and his squad barely made it out alive._

Looking through his helmet, his HUD pinpointed the other members of his squad sitting around him in the Nu-class Attack Shuttle quickly making its way out of the Felucian atmosphere. Explosions outside bumped the shuttle slightly from side to side, but nothing he wasn't used to from both the training sims and the Republic's string of defeats in the outer rim. Thinking about this he realised that the larger strategic picture of the war was not his business but the smaller tactical one was. He looked at his namesake, the two flamethrower projectors on his wrists whose tips were still glowing red. He had used them to cover his squad's retreat to the shuttle, melting skeletal B1 and heavier B2 battle droids with them. He pushed the battle out of his mind, dismissing it as not his fault, and hence not his problem anymore...

The entire squad sat in their seats in the troop bay of the shuttle, each looking unique in their armor despite being clones of the same man. Tracyn looked to his right to see his Heavy weapons expert; "Blitz" checking the firing mechanism of his Z-6 Rotary Cannon. He nodded in response. Blitz's armor had red trims to indicate he was a Captain and his helmet featured Macro Binoculars instead of range finders which all ARC troopers had. Just coming straight off the battlefield he hadn't let his guard down yet. Being the strong silent type, he kept the rest of the squad in line when things got out of hand, which for ARC troopers meant seriously bad on a regular basis. He heard the voice of his slicer, Data, in his Helmet comm system; "Hey Commander, I guess we deserve some R&R on triple zero right?" Tracyn thought about that last statement and answered back "I'm sure I can get General Zey to give us some time off, once we get to Coruscant." Data had Blue trims signifying that he was a lieutenant and had a more complicated looking device on his wrist instead of the standard wrist com kit, which he uses to slice into computer systems. His squad sniper, Ven'vuul suddenly shot back; "Yeah, if these damn flyboys can get us there first! Hey pilot, what's takin' so long, you stopped for gas or something?" The squad started laughing and the pilot shot back "You're welcome to come and fly this crate if you want trooper!" Ven'vuul replied "That's ARC trooper to you flyboy!" Suddenly, an explosion rocked the shuttle violently to the right and then to the left. Spare clips fell from their boxes and the squad bounced around in their seats. Thinking this was the pilot's idea of a joke, Ven'vuul shot back; "Um, pilot I take that back, you're doing fine, just don't do that again…" The pilot suddenly replied "Not my fault trooper, droid fighters on our six! Trying to shake em' hold on!"

The shuttle swayed from side to side to avoid the streaks of angry red laser streaming from the gunports of the pursuing insect like Vulture droids. The pilot screamed into the squad coms; "They've cut us off from the cruiser! Stand by, I am changing course!" The shuttle dove below the approaching swarm of Vulture droids, who were then engaged by a V-19 torrent fighter squadron. The pilot breathed a sigh of relief and then swung the shuttle away from the cruiser. As they accelerated away from the battle, the pilot announced;"Alright we lost them, engaging hyper drive."

The shuttle accelerated toward the system's edge, about to make the jump to hyperspace when another flight of Vulture droids attacked. Warning lights in the Cabin went off and a voice alarm sounded "WARNING! Hyperdrive damaged!" The pilot struggled to deactivate the Hyperdrive but the Vultures came back for another attack run, this time toward the cockpit. Lasers hit the cockpit canopy base, sending sparks flying from the controls. The same computerized voice sounded; "Hyperdrive engaged." The Pilot shouted in reply; "Troopers, hold on! We may not make it!" The squad sat un-moving and grim in the cabin, holding onto their harnesses for dear life like scared children on an amusement park ride they had no control over. Motes of light stretched around the shuttle as it sped on at the speed of light to an unknown destination.

**Sorry guys if this was too much Star Wars, but I wanted to make it clear that they did not know where they were heading or even if they were going to live so…Next Chapter WILL have more borderlands in it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Mandalorian to Basic Translation:

Hutuune-Coward (Worst possible insult)

Vode-Brother/s

"Pilot, disengage the Hyperdrive!" screamed the now very worried Ven'vuul. His sniper rifle was lying on the floor of the cabin in front of him as he held onto his harness with a white-knuckled grip. The pilot replied to the frantic cries of the sniper as he frantically read the data scrolling across the various glowing displays in front of him; "Lieutenant," he said calling Ven'vuul by his actual rank rather than just "trooper", "If I disengage the Hyperdrive now, there's no telling what will happen! The good news is that we are not dead, which means whatever our current heading is, its not the middle of a star or something horrible like that." Tracyn spoke up "Vode, grab your gear and stay alert, we may not know where we are heading, but we don't want to give whatever's out there an easy target!" The troopers got to work securing their gear, now moving with a purpose, forgetting about their predicament, Tracyn buried himself in ensuring that his squad had something to do instead of thinking about what he was sure were their last moments.

After what seemed to Tracyn like two galactic standard hours later, he heard the pilot call out "Coming out of hyperspace!" The leader part of Tracyn took over "Pilot, what system is this?" After a momentary pause the pilot replied, "Scanning, Scanning, wait a moment something's wrong." "What?" replied Tracyn, realizing that his second worst fear of them landing up somewhere in the unknown sector was probably coming true. To his shock however, the pilot said something that took a whole five minutes to completely sink in, "Sir, the Navicomputer places us outside the Galactic Rim!" Tracyn's heart sank- _outside_ the galactic rim? How was that even possible? "Data, scan for transmissions, I want to find where the kriff we are!" "On it sir!" replied the slicer as he began to furiously swipe at his datapad.

"Sir, I got one, its garbled but its something" "Patch it through" The squad all turned toward the holo-projector in front of them hoping it would provide some sort of good news. "Han-som- J-ck wants y-u! Va-lt hunters required!" a different voice could then be heard "H-y ther-! –andsom- Ja-k here, pres-dent of Hyp-rio-, the Hyp-rio- corp-ration needs talented induvid—ls to assist in the u-cover-ng of…" the transmission abruptly ended. "That's it sir." Data replied. "That's all we need, we'll find this 'Hyperion' corporation, do what they want and see if we can use their comm systems to contact the Republic. Pilot, take us to source." "Scanners indicate a settlement of sorts near the transmission source; I'll set us down near there." Tracyn eased back into his seat as he felt the shuttle accelerate toward the planet. He found himself slowly nodding off to sleep. He deserved it. He had gotten his squad out of two bad situations. He was sure they'd wake him when the time came. He closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.

The shuttle entered the Pandoran atmosphere with no issues at all. It then descended below the cloud base to reveal a dry desert littered with strange plants that clone pilot CC – 5564 had never seen before in his life. He stared in awe at the strange sights including a group of skags that scattered at high pitched sound of the shuttle's engines. The shuttle's repulsor lift kicked up a storm of dust under the shuttle. In the bright desert sun any external observer could see the damage done to the shuttle. The wings were scorched and the rear thrusters were a dull blue instead of their usual brilliant bright selves. The pilot however ignored the damage done to his shuttle. His displays told him that the hyperdrive was now completely inoperable, his shields were gone and two laser cannons had limited function. All he cared about however was getting the troopers who trusted him with their lives, jokes aside, to safety even if that meant pushing his damaged shuttle to the limits. He called out "Troopers, I wish you could see what I'm seeing, welcome to paradise." While hardly a paradise, it was a welcome change to men who had been fighting in dense forests for the last few days. On the Horizon the pilot could see the edges of a small town and what looked to be a repulsor lift train station. A station would mean that there would probably be some Hyperion official there. This made him calm. Commander Tracyn's plan of contacting Hyperion would be easier than he first thought. He adjusted course so that he could land near the station, but just as he was doing so, a low pitched robotic voice boomed in his earpiece, "Unidentified transport, this is Hyperion air combat patrol 226, please state your authorization code."

"Commander, you might want to hear this." Tracyn woke up with a start as he heard the pilot's voice in his helmet. He frowned under his helmet as the transmission was relayed to him- what authorization codes was this thing talking about? "Pilot, inform our escorts that we are require assistance." "This is Republic shuttle Delta-24, our craft has been damaged, we request permission to land and speak to a Hyperion representative." Outside the shuttle, the four JET Loaders pulled back a short distance behind the damaged Republic shuttle. The lead JET loader repeated his earlier statement, this time in a more forceful manner; "State valid authorization code!" The targeting computer on the shuttle started flashing a warning "Missile Lock! Missile Lock! Missile Lock!" CC-5564 cursed under his breath, he waited till he heard the missile leave the craft behind him, then he deployed his flares and dived to the left, two missiles exploded harmlessly behind the shuttle, another one veered into the ground its targeting computer overloaded, but the fourth found its target in the left thruster bank of the shuttle. The already damaged shuttle had enough. It began a sickly slow drop to the desert floor below.

It was Tracyn's turn to curse this time "Vode, hang on, those Hutuune droids are firing at us!" The pilot remained silent as he struggled to wrest control of the shuttle which was hurtling towards the ground like a dead Rakk.

The shuttle hit the ground with a loud thud, sending weapons and ammo flying everywhere in the cabin. Blitz spoke for the first time since leaving Felucia; "Tracyn, I may not get to say this later, but it's been a good run, It has been a genuine pleasure serving with you, vode." "We're not dying yet!" That was the last thing Tracyn would ever say to Blitz as the right wing of the shuttle tore off after hitting a rock, taking a large part of the cabin with it, knocking both of them out cold and separating Blitz and Tracyn from Ven'vuul and Data.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige was a normal girl, or at least a mostly normal girl. Attending High School on Eden-5 and having to deal with problems a normal girl would - not enough subscribers for her ECHO cast, dealing with pain in the ass bitchy classmates, and working on her project for the Science would also seem to be the ones that sent her on her way to her new life as a Vault Hunter on Pandora,

It all started when Gaige entered into the annual science fair and found out that her rival Marcy Holloway, used her Dad's vast resources to build a miniature thermo sonic energy reactor, pshhh, Gaige knew should could top that five times over. Gaige's project was an Anti-Bullying robot, which could Digistruct itself on command and automatically identify the bully. It would then proceed to utilize digistruct claws to attack them. Gaige had been proudly announcing this on her ECHO casts but to her disappointment, this did not increase the number of subscribers from the low number of eleven. Gaige mulled this over in her mind as she sat in the uncomfortable confines of the freighter that was on its final approach to the space port. She stared at the wanted poster on the freighters hull. A picture of a young girl with bright red hair tied into two pigtails occupied most of the poster - she was staring at a picture of herself.

Gaige remembered how she got herself into this predicament; the now deceased Marcy Holloway. During one of their group projects, Gaige as usual was doing all the work and as such didn't notice that Marcy had managed to steal her plans for Deathtrap as she now had called it. Marcy then proceeded to sell the designs to the Eden-5 police force and even make a copy for herself which she then entered in the science fair. The night before the science fair, Gaige made several last minute adjustments to DT, including adding a laser beam and various other enhancements.

The next day during the science fair, Gaige's Deathtrap performed excellently impressing the judges. Marcy's robot put on a substandard performance overheating every few minutes. The judge's panel however had been bought off by Mr Holloway, who as Gaige said "Had more money than GOD!" They gave Gaige third place and Marcy first. As the freighter landed, Gaige remembered how Marcy began to gloat after winning, going so far as to push Gaige, which caused Death Trap to identify her as a threat. A slight mis-calibration in Gaige's last minute modification caused Marcy to explode in a gory mess of blood and flesh, the moment Death Trap's claws touched her.

Facing expulsion and prison, Gaige's dad, understanding that it was not her fault and believing that Marcy deserved it, created a distraction for Gaige so that she could escape custody. She got a ticket to Pandora where she would be safe from the Eden-5 Law Enforcement. Tears welled up in Gaige's eyes as she remembered her father; "Thanks Dad" she whispered to herself as she made her way from the spaceport. Gaige saw "Vault Hunters Wanted" signs near to the train station and realised that this was it. She was finally going to start her adventures on Pandora. She teemed with excitement as she stepped aboard.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn opened his eyes to a blurry nightmare. He could barely make out what was in front of him but he could see only two things- death and destruction. Wires hung from what was left of the roof, sparking angrily, and there was a fire burning where the right engine bank was, two metres behind him. Blaming his helmet for the blurriness in his vision, he rebooted the software and removed it, only to realize that it was him who was malfunctioning. He placed his helmet back on his head, shaking his head from side to side trying to clear the bluriness in his vision. This worked more or less as his sight returned to him. He then proceeded to check his squads Bio monitors, which brought him deep grief- Blitz, Ven'vuul, Data and even the pilot were dead, a flat green line on a graph proving it. He breathed a deep sigh, knowing that this was the most probable likelihood, but he had hoped to die with his men if it was going to result in this.

Tracyn pushed on his harness with all his remaining strength, knowing that he would die as well if he stayed there. He could see a group of skags approaching cautiously in the distance. Not wanting to find out whether they were friendly or not, he jumped off what was left of the cabin floor and began searching for his gun. He found his Westar M5 not far from the half of the shuttle that he was in. Retrieving it, he checked the power cell. Kriffing great, only half a mag he thought to himself. Well, it would have to do. He ran a quick diagnostic on his armor. His sensors were damaged but not that badly. Their range was just a little more limited now, and his wrist comm was fried. That would be no problem, his squad was dead anyway. He trudged toward the middle of what was left of the ship and paid his last respects to his men:

Motir ca'tra nau tracinya.  
Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a. Cuun hett su...

(Those who stand before us light the night sky in flame. Our vengeance burns brighter still. Burns brighter still…)

He took one last look at his men, with whom he had fought alongside for as long as he can remember. His vode now lay dead before him. He turned and walked away, knowing that there was nothing that he could do.

Just as Tracyn turned around, a beep in his HUD caught his attention. A green line started oscillating up and down the graph. He looked at the name above it- Data. Data had been sitting in the rear left side of the ship, relatively shielded from the blast and the collision. It was improbable but possible. Tracyn didn't care, it was a chance he was going to take. He ran toward where his brother lay, who was moving ever so slightly. "Vode, Data, you okay?" "I take it we're on triple zero, and that was all a dream, this is really my uncomfortable bed?" Tracyn chuckled, ecstatic that his brother had come back to him. "No Data, we really crashed." "Way to go Commander, ruin the mood, my leg hurts." Tracyn chuckled again; Data always knew how to lighten the mood. "Come on vode, let's get you up."

In the next half hour, Tracyn and Data had managed to make their way to the train station they had seen in the distance from the shuttle. They made their way across the platform, Tracyn helping Data to walk. This earned them strange looks from others. As they approached one of the entrances, an official looking man in a yellow uniform stopped them; "You two Vault Hunters?" Tracyn remembered the transmission "Yes." he quickly answered. "Alright, step on in." They moved through the carriages hoping to find an empty one. They stopped in one with a single passenger; a strange looking girl with red hair tied into two pigtails. She wore a sleeveless hoodie, with an orange T-Shirt with a skull on it underneath, and a red skirt. The one thing that struck Tracyn was her left arm, which was a mechanical prosthetic. A voice interrupted Tracyn's thoughts "Hey, um, guys. Are you Vault Hunters?" When Tracyn looked to see who asked that question, he found himself staring into the face of the red haired girl. "Yes, we are. What about you? Is this train part of a regular service?" he asked assuming that the girl was just on this train to transit between locations. "I wouldn't know, I just got here I'm a vault hunter just like you." And with that Tracyn stared in shock at the girl who seemed not much more than 17 years. "Pardon me for asking," he said "but aren't you a bit young for that?" not entirely sure what being a vault hunter entailed. "I am 18 years old! I am practically an adult, plus check this out." The girl flexed the fingers on her mechanical arm. Behind Tracyn, blue light formed the outline of what seemed to be a robot of some kind, finally filling in the outline leaving behind a large robot hovering just off the ground. It had a huge claw on one hand and one large glowing red eye. Tracyn and Data both reached for their weapons, but the girl yelled out "Hey, relax, he's with me. I present to you my greatest creation, a legless torso of pure awesomeness, or Death Trap!" Tracyn lowered his gun reluctantly. Data asked out of his own curiosity; "You built that kid, on your own?" "Yup, and oh by the way, it's Gaige."

From behind them a voice called them "So what happened to your arm then?" "I cut it off with a particle saw…This one's waay better, plus I can summon DT at will" Tracyn had a pained expression underneath his helmet. He turned around to see a man of average height with spiky brown hair, wearing some sort of uniform. Tracyn knew that he had obviously seen military service. "So that's what he's called huh?" said a midget from behind the other man staring up at DT. He was extremely muscled and had a long beard and Mohawk. A black armoured ninja stepped through the doorway, he had a black faceplate which displayed a 0 on it;

She cut off her arm

She is strong, we can use her

On our very strange team

A blue haired woman stepped out from behind the ninja and said "Look who's talking Zer0." Gaige smiled with pride at what seemed like a compliment, and replied; "Thanks Zer0! At least someone appreciates my skills. Axton replied to Maya's statement with; "Well I might as well introduce you to the team. The Assassin as you know is Zer0, I'm Axton, our resident Siren is Maya, and the angry midget over there is Salvador. You are?" "I'm Gaige. It's a pleasure to meet you guys!" Axton turned to Tracyn and Data; "What about you two, you guys have names?" "Tracyn and this is Data." Axton looked at the two of them and nodded to Data; "Your friend looks hurt, he okay?" "I'll be fine…" Data replied.

Axton opened his mouth to ask another question but the sign behind him which read "Welcome Vault Hunters" fell off to reveal another sign entirely which read "To your doom. It's nothing personal". Several Hyperion loaders appeared firing their guns at the Vault Hunters. Zer0 disappeared in the direction of the roof, Axton deployed his turrets Maya grabbed one of them in a phaselock and Gaige ordered DT to attack them. Tracyn stared at a loader as it approached him; his gun was on the floor, no time to reach it. He pointed both his wrists at the two loaders and activated his flamethrowers. Two hot streams of orange came from the two nozzles over his wrists and hit the loaders, slowing them to standstill. First their arms fell off, then they proclaimed; "ERROR, unit shut down!" and then dropped to the ground. Data, gave him a nod of approval, and they moved to the next compartment. On the way, they saw Salvador who looked at the charred loaders and gave a low whistle; "Whoa Amigo, nice job!" he said to Tracyn who nodded in response. Tracyn, Data and Salvador moved to the next compartment and met up with Gaige, Maya, Axton and Zer0. Axton said; "Come on let's see about stopping this train, we need to get off." Tracyn replied; "A tactically sound decision, enemy strengths are unknown." Axton raised his hand holding up three fingers, lowering them as he counted down. Once he reached zero, Tracyn and Axton kicked the door in together. The sight that lay in front of them was shocking- there was dynamite everywhere and there was a plastic model of Handsome Jack on the chair in the engine compartment. A voice called out; "Its cute that you think yáll are the heroes in this story, but you're not." Axton started barking out orders for everyone to move away "Move, everyone move, now!" Handsome Jack's voice continued; "Welcome to Pandora, Kiddos!" Tracyn felt the heat of the explosion behind him as he turned to move away. He felt his body fly through the air, before landing in the snowy terrain that surrounded what was left of the train. Tracyn tried to get up, but struggled and fell back. His world went blank.

**Okay so that's it for now, I hope I managed to keep everyone in character, so...Also please leave reviews this is my FIRST FanFic so I would love any type of criticism, in fact I demand criticism. Hope you guys like the story so far...**

**Until next time...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Chaakar-Idiot**

**Axton's Perspective**

Axton awoke to a strange robotic voice "Great, another dead vault hunter. Handsome Jack has been busy!" Axton slowly sat up where he landed after the explosion, his head throbbing. In front of him he could see a small box shaped yellow robot, with a single wheel moving him around Axton in circles. The robot then spoke again in the same annoying voice he had earlier, much to Axton's dismay "I am a CL4P-TP service droid, but my friends call me Claptrap! Or they would if they were alive, or had even existed in the first place!" The word "friends" caught Axton's attention, had any of his fellow vault hunters survived the crash? He didn't care, "he was in this for the fame and the loot", he told himself. Although having him alone doing all the fighting would make finding the vault and kicking Hyperion's ass considerably more difficult. "Aw shit!" Axton said to himself as he lifted himself out of the snow, looking around himself to see if he could find any of the others. Axton could see a body in front of him, mostly covered in snow, it was far too slender to be Salvador, and it wasn't wearing any armor so it couldn't be Zer0, it was Maya.

Axton ran over to where Maya lay with Claptrap hot on his heels. He quickly began moving snow away from her body. Her one exposed arm had turned a ghostly pale shade; Axton blew into his hands and rubbed hers in attempt to keep it warm. He heard Salvador say from behind him with a grave tone "I don't think she's breathing amigo..." Axton looked at her, she didn't seem to be, but he put his ear to her chest to make sure. Axton suddenly found himself suspended in a purple bubble, in front of him he could see Maya half sitting using one hand to support her body. She was glaring at him with angry eyes that seemed to stare into his very soul "What the hell are you trying to pull Axton!" she demanded. Salvador burst out laughing and Zer0 who was walking toward them displayed a "LOL" on his visor. Axton protested "I wasn't trying to "_pull" _anything! Jeez, I had no idea making sure you were alive was such a crime!" Maya ended her phaselock leaving Axton to drop into the snow. Axton stood up dusting snow from his clothes; he turned to Zer0 "Have you seen the other three, Zer0?" The assassin simply shook his head from side to side in response. Axton looked at Zer0 incredulously "It didn't occur to you that maybe you should see if they're okay?" A "?" appeared on Zer0's visor, making Axton sigh in exasperation "Go and look for them!" Claptrap began moving around impatiently "Minion, we should get moving, victory over Handsome Jack waits for no one!" Axton ignored the annoying little robot as he watched Zer0 walk away.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 rolled his eyes underneath his helmet, if they hadn't regained consciousness by now they were surely dead. He spotted part of the train in the distance and moved close to check for what he was sure were going to be three corpses. As he neared the wreckage he could make out a figure lying in the snow. From where he stood he could just make out a metallic arm sticking out from the snow; Gaige. Zer0 walked over to where she lay, "Unfortunate" he thought as he cleared the snow around her body. He then touched her neck to check for a pulse when the girl moaned softly "Dad, not now, five more minutes..." Zer0 was a little taken aback, but then realised that Gaige was probably dreaming.

Gaige, wake up you are

Not where you think you are

You lie in the snow

Gaige opened her eyes to see Zer0 staring down at her, a smiley emoticon displayed on his visor. "Zer0?" Gaige returned weakly. Zer0 offered his hand to Gaige who gave his hand a strange look, realizing that it only had four fingers. She finally took his hand as he helped her stand up. As he was helping Gaige up, he couldn't help but notice Gaige staring into his visor, but he had seen that look before, it was a "what do you look like behind that helmet" look; Zer0 simply looked the other way.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige couldn't help but wonder what made Zer0 tick, how did he manage to locate her so fast, and why look for her, but not the others? She was also in wonder at the number of fingers Zer0 had on his hand, was he even human? She found herself staring at more remnants of the train in the distance until a voice interrupted her thoughts "Gaige! Do you not listen? Here take this!" Zer0 tossed her a small square shaped device. Gaige looked at the device; it was a personal shield generator. She strapped it onto her waist and looked up again to see Zer0 offering her another device, it was a gun. Gaige had never held a real gun in her life, only pellet guns and nail guns! She took the handle awkwardly; it had a brown camouflage pattern and a second smaller handle. Zer0 face palmed, he took hold of her other hand and placed it onto the other handle. Gaige looked up at Zer0 who said "Dahl Submachine guns/Fire fast with little recoil/do not worry." Gaige wondered how she would shoot somebody with this thing, she had never killed before. Zer0 saw her face and understood what she was thinking "Do not worry when the/ time comes, you will do what is/ needed to survive." A smiley emoticon appeared on his helmet. She knew he was just trying to comfort her, but she wasn't feeling all that better for all that is was worth. She saw Zer0 turning around, beginning to do saw as well, until something in the corner of her vision caught her attention. She could see two figures a distance away, near two compartments of the destroyed train. They were almost imperceptible with their white armor if not for the coloured trims on them. One of them was lying in the snow while the other was sitting next to him, Gaige new these were the first two vault hunters she met on the train. Gaige ran toward their location tugging on Zer0's hand forcing him to come along.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn knelt next to Data as his mind raced. Regaining consciousness not long ago, he found Data lying in the snow, his Bio monitor not telling a good story. The green line slowly oscillated getting even slower by the minute. Tracyn had his helmet off, seemingly ignorant of the cold wind assaulting his face. Tracyn refused to bury his brother again; he had lost his bacta dispenser and cursed himself for just sitting around while Data was dying. Data could make out what Tracyn was thinking "It's alright commander, you had no idea this was going to happen, besides I was a dead man anyway." He said between ragged short breaths.

Out of the corner of his eye Tracyn could see two figures approaching. He had lost his gun in the explosion but he didn't care if they were going to kill him then so be it. He heard a voice call out from behind him "Do you need an insta-health?" he turned around to see the black armoured ninja, Zer0. Next to him stood the red haired girl he had seen on the train, she had a genuine look of concern on her face. Tracyn nodded in response to Zer0's question, catching the vial that was tossed to him out of the air. He looked it over in his hands, not knowing what its contents did, only assuming they had a similar function to bacta.

Data looked up at him weakly "It might be a little late for that…" he slowly reached for and touched a button on his wrist which displayed a hologram of his body. The hologram showed haemorrhaging in several places and a punctured lung. Tracyn's head dropped lower, Data spoke again more slowly between several more desperate ragged breaths "It's alright sir, I guess this is what I get for being such a cheeky chaakar." Data let out a small laugh, following which he coughed up blood, leaving scarlet blotches on pristine white armor.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige stood and watched as the man she knew as Data was slowly dying in front of her eyes. Looking at the two men she couldn't help however but notice a striking resemblance, they both had a tanned complexion brown eyes and black hair; they were also both clean shaven and shared the exact same hairstyle. The first thought that came into Gaige's head was that they looked like clones, but she discarded those thoughts; perhaps they were brothers she thought. Data then proceeded to take a few more breaths before stopping mid breath, stopping absolutely still; he was dead. She bowed her head down, seeing even Zer0 do so and she could have sworn that she saw a single tear drop down Tracyn's cheek.

She saw that Tracyn then proceed to put his own helmet back on and then he bent down, picking up a black weapon that was attached to Data's back, and a complicated device off of his wrist. The man looked up to her and then threw it in her direction, which she clumsily caught. She bent her head to the side, Tracyn knew what she was thinking and said "Keep it, it would be more useful to you than it would to me I imagine. From what I can see you're a hell of an engineer." Gaige gave her best smile, which Tracyn returned weakly. He walked some distance away before saying "Motir ca'tra nau tracinya. Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a. Cuun hett su..." Gaige's curiosity perked up "What does that mean?" Tracyn replied "It means: Those who stand before us light the night sky in flame. Our vengeance burns brighter still. Burns brighter still…" Gaige replied "That's beautiful! What language is that?" "Later, I'll tell you later. Step back please…" Gaige saw Tracyn's finger hover over a button on his wrist and took a step back she knew exactly what was going to happen.

Gaige's loose clothing whipped around her body as the blast from the explosion pushed them back. She heard Axton's voice over her ECHO "Zer0. What happened? I see you found Gaige, but what was that explosion?" Gaige answered for Zer0 "We found Tracyn, but Data is dead, Tracyn was just disposing of Data's gear." Axton sounded shocked "What? Just like that, he blew it up? Never mind just get back here."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn followed Zer0 and Gaige to where the rest of the Vault Hunters were standing together. Axton approached Tracyn "I'm sorry about your friend, we're going to make Jack pay." Tracyn replied coldly "Leave that to me." Axton nodded, understanding Tracyn's need to avenge his friend. He then asked Tracyn "You have a shield? Gun?" Tracyn looked down at Data's M5, the power cell was empty and when he clicked he could hear the gun power up, and then down; it was definitely damaged. "My rifle is damaged and I don't have a shield." replied Tracyn. Axton handed Tracyn a shield, which he was instructed to attach to his belt. Axton handed him a Dahl Defender assault rifle. Tracyn looked at the rifle, it was a projectile weapon, similar to what trandoshans used, it would have to do until he could repair his blaster. He took the rifle from Axton, before shouldering it and chambering a round. He saw Axton turn to a small yellow robot and say "Claptrap, lead the way."

**Axton's Perspective**

Axton followed claptrap, as he was walking through the blizzard he heard a voice speak into his ECHO communicator "I'll explain everything soon, but know this- you're alive for a reason, and I…am here to help you." Axton stopped very suddenly, "Did you guys hear that?" Everyone nodded, even Tracyn his communicator working only at short ranges. "Who the hell was that," wondered Gaige out loud. Salvador replied "I don't think any of us know niña" to which Gaige nodded and the group moved on until they reached a door in the mountain. Claptrap remarked "Well done! Your ability to walk short distances without dying will be Handsome Jack's downfall!" Axton could see both Maya and Gaige roll their eyes, he smiled agreeing with their opinion of Claptrap.

Claptrap stepped in front of the door and yelled "Aaand open! Just a little added security, got to keep those Bullymongs at bay or they'll rip your eyes out." Axton was sure that a Bullymong could knock Claptraps door of its hinges, but it probably wouldn't be able to fit through afterwards, so that didn't matter. Axton and the rest of the Vault Hunters made their way through three smaller caverns before Claptrap stopped in a final larger one. The entire scene was littered with Claptrap units, dead bandits and other miscellaneous junk. Axton heard Claptrap drabble about being sorry about the mess, not that Axton cared.

Claptrap then proceeded to warn them about the dangerous wildlife, in particular Bullymongs and specifically one called Knuckledragger. Axton wondered how would someone drag their knuckles but he then remembered that Bullymongs had four long arms, which were abnormally long. The team of vault hunters had fanned out exploring the room. Salvador was picking up cash left on a table, Zer0 looked through the closet that Claptrap mentioned had a pistol in it, Maya looked at the dead bandit corpses strewn about the floor while Gaige and Tracyn looked at the wrecked Claptrap units all over the right side of the cave. As soon as Claptrap finished speaking, a loud growl could be heard, causing all the vault hunters to look at the source, a hole in the roof of Claptraps cave. In a flash a large Bullymong swept in and picked up Claptrap in one fell swoop before finally ripping his eye out and disappearing from the same hole he came in from.

An objective marker appeared on everyone's HUDs, the whole team drew their weapons and headed toward the waypoint on their minimaps. Axton heard the same mysterious voice he had heard earlier "Once upon a time, four Vault Hunters changed Pandora forever. But their time has passed- thanks to Handsome Jack. Pandora needs new heroes. I know those heroes are you."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Claptrap's voice erupted in Tracyn's ears again "Apart from the excruciating pain, this is great! I've been waiting for a mighty Vault Hunter, or several, to help me reach Sanctuary! I will be your wise leader, and you, shall be my fearsome minions!" Tracyn very much doubted the last part of that statement but this Sanctuary place seemed like a good idea.

Claptrap opened a door for them on the far side of the room, revealing a door with many chests in it. Axton ordered "Alright everyone, fill up your ammo, we have no idea what's ahead." Tracyn didn't need to be told twice but soon ran out of pouches on his belt. Gaige looked at him holding clips of ammo in his hands and asked "Don't you have an SDU?" Tracyn shook his head "I wouldn't be holding clips in my hand if I did, would I?" Gaige gave him a smile and threw him a small rectangular box. He attatched it to his belt as he had seen with the other Vault Hunters and watched as all his ammo was absorbed into it.

He heard Claptrap say something about telling him if he was going to hit into something. He saw Maya raise her finger to her lips, and the Zer0's visor display a "LOL" on it. Tracyn caught on; they planned on letting Claptrap bump into various objects, creating much comic relief, he liked that idea. Just as they were leaving the cave, Claptrap promptly hit something causing the team to burst out laughing and Claptrap to say "I'll just assume you didn't see that." They walked down the hill from the exit of the cave until the came to a metal bridge lying in the snow around it several yellow boxes lay strewn around. Tracyn heard the same mysterious voice he heard earlier "Stick close to the robot-he will help you get off this glacier, and into the city of Sanctuary. That is the only place you will be safe." Axton replied "Alright team, stop here, we'll discuss our plan. I don't know who this person is who keeps contacting us, but what she has said so far does not seem wrong, news of the previous vault hunters creating an organised resistance is not untrue, maybe this news about Sanctuary isn't false either. Maybe once we're there we can organise ourselves. Any opinions?" Tracyn spoke up "Agreed, a planned attack on Hyperion forces will be far more effective." Tracyn head Gaige yell out "Anarchy forever!" Axton replied "So its settled then, let's help Claptrap and get to Sanctuary."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Shebs- Butt

**Axton's Perspective**

After they had finished picking up ammunition, Axton watched as the group continued to follow Claptrap who suddenly stopped "Ahh! I hear Bullymongs! Sic em' minions! PROTECT ME SQUIRES!" Axton looked up to the source of the noise to see several snow white Bullymongs standing on the ridge above them. They jumped into the air and Axton saw his team jump into action. Zer0 was crouching with his Calipeen sniper rifle in his hand, Maya had one of them in a phaselock, Gaige's Deathtrap was tearing one apart and Salvador and Tracyn were firing at three. Axton had to admit, they made a good team. In a few short seconds and several dead Bullymongs later the Vault Hunters stood waiting for Axton to join them. Gaige teased "Hey guys, I think Axton has a secret fear of apes." Maya then replied "Then he should hate looking himself in the mirror every morning." The vault hunters burst out laughing even Tracyn. "Hilarious!" He said in an accent only to be interrupted by Claptrap "Let's go! If we don't get my eye back, we'll never get to Sanctuary!" For once Claptrap was right, he nodded to the others and followed Claptrap.

As they walked on there was a tremor, Claptrap fell to the ground "Ugh, they say Jack's mining operations are causing those earthquakes. That or your mom just got out of bed! Zing!" Axton saw Tracyn sigh in an exaggerated manner, and then walk up to Claptrap. What Axton saw Tracyn do then was something that he had wanted to do ever since he met the robot, he kicked him. Tracyn yelled "Move droid, we have no time for your pathetic attempts at humour!" and then more softly "I have no mother anyway." Claptrap answered "Okay minion, no need to get violent!" Axton chuckled to himself but wondered what Tracyn had meant about not having a mother but told himself that he would ask him later anyways.

The same mysterious voice sounded on his ECHO again "You'll need that funny little robot's help to reach Sanctuary the last bastion of the resistance against Jack, and the only place you'll be truly safe. Get to Sanctuary, and don't kill the robot yet." Axton watched as Claptrap descended down a series of ledges, reaching a large clearing ahead.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 took up position on the highest ledge before watching the others descend to the clearing, except Tracyn who took up position one ledge below Zer0. Zer0 shouldered his rifle as a he saw more Bullymongs arrive on scene; he centred his scope on the lead Bullymong but saw its head explode. He looked down to see Tracyn's gun shouldered and a spent casing on the floor. Tracyn looked up at him and Zer0 flashed a " " emoticon on his visor to which Tracyn just shook his head and chuckled. Zer0 noted that Tracyn was indeed a skilled warrior, no a soldier, but unlike Axton he had not become accustomed to civilian ways.

Axton saw Gaige wildly firing at a Bullymong, the rounds going everywhere. Zer0 sighed, she had much to learn. Axton and Maya stood side by side Maya using her powers to dish out a powerful melee strike to any Bullymongs that got close. Salvador was using two shotguns to blast away at Bullymongs. They had highly varied fighting styles and they would have to make an attempt to understand each other's.

**Axton's Perspective**

Axton watched as Maya punched a Bullymong a good 6 feet away, the blue markings on her arm glowing bright. Axton found himself staring at Maya's arm, after a moment Maya noticed him and turned away, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. Axton cursed himself, "What are you doing Axton?" he thought to himself. He then focused on regrouping the team, who had returned from their various positions, Zer0 and Tracyn walked together, and Salvador and Gaige walked together. Axton had noticed that Gaige's fighting had been a little sloppy, but considering she had never fired a "real" gun in her life, she was doing fine. He would get Zer0 to help her out later, his aim was amazing, and maybe he could rub off on her.

He heard Claptrap shout out from behind him, "Minions? Are the Bullymongs dead? Great, get me out of here!" Maya sighed and lifted him out of the snow, and moved him to where they stood. After dropping Claptrap, Axton noticed that Maya gave out a tired sigh; she was obviously getting tired. At that moment they all heard a voice in their ECHOs, but this voice they recognised; it has Handsome Jack's. Axton saw the entire team tense up, but none more than Tracyn, he suddenly became more rigid, he had his fist clenched and he held his gun tighter; he was mad. Handsome Jack's voice boomed in their ears "Hey kiddos Handsome Jack here- President of Hyperion. Lemme explain how things work here: Vault Hunters show up. Vault Hunters look for the new Vault. Vault Hunters get killed. By me, seeing the problem here? You're still alive, so if you could just do me a favour and off yourselves, that'd be great. Thanks Pumpkin."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

The group had come to a metal bridge like they had seen earlier, except this one was over a large ravine. That was when they had got the ECHO message. After hearing it Tracyn was furious. This Hutuune couldn't even get off his shebs; he sent his robots after them. When his pathetic lackeys failed, he blew up the train. Data died without even facing his foe, and now he called pretending to be some kind of hero! Tracyn saw Axton come up to him "Tracyn, not now, we'll take this F***** down but not now." Tracyn calmed himself, the group proceeded through the bridge, as soon as they walked through it Claptrap yelled out "Oh! My eye just switched back on! I see some tough looking minions, and an incredibly handsome robot. This means that whoever has my eye…" Tracyn finished it, must be close. Tracyn yelled out "Bullymong incoming!"

As if on cue a large Bullymong appeared on the ridge, it grabbed the wreckage of a car and threw it downward, landing in the exploded remains roaring. Tracyn activated his Flamethrower targeting suite, and charged toward the Bullymong, next to him he saw Zer0 running as well, in these closer confines a sniper rifle would be useless. On Tracyn's right Gaige's robot Death Trap hovered forward as well. The Bullymong, Knuckledragger, swung at Zer0 which caught him square on the chest and went through; it was a hologram. Tracyn saw Zer0 jump out from behind the Bullymong wielding a Katana; he sliced off one of the Bullymongs arms, causing it to scream in pain.

Tracyn didn't wait; he activated his flamethrowers, sending hot jets of plasma like fire at the Bullymong. The Bullymong recoiled, hot fire burning through his fur. The fire soon spread and the Bullymong was now on fire. Death Trap gave the Bullymong several swipes and Tracyn jumped out of the way of the enraged creature. He turned around to see Zer0 chop off one of its legs causing it to drop. Tracyn watched as the rest of the team now approached firing their guns into it, finishing it off.

Tracyn heard Claptrap yell out "Whoohoo! If you would retrieve my eye for me." Tracyn saw Gaige walk up to the now very dead and charred Bullymong and pull out Claptrap's eye. Claptrap spoke again "Now we just have to find someone to put it back! As much as one of you would wasn't to shove your fists into my skull optic surgery is best left to the professionals; like my pal Sir Hammerlock at Liar's Berg." Tracyn looked up at the sky, it was getting dark, and maybe they should rest first. They walked up the hill to where a large barge lay resting above another ravine. Claptrap spoke up "Liar's Berg is on the other side of this Hyperion Barge, what say we cut through it chums?"

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige watched as Claptrap approached the barge's rear door "Ha this door's Hyperion tech—child's play. Aaaaaand OPEN!" A small robotic optic near the door scanned claptrap before proclaiming "Intruder's detected. Locking door." After which the eye turned red. Claptrap then turned to face her and the rest of the Vault Hunters "Well it was nice knowing ya! I hear getting eaten alive by Bullymongs isn't such a bad way to go." As Claptrap finished speaking the same Mysterious voice sounded in their helmets, but for the first time Gaige paid attention to the face that showed on her HUD. The face in the HUD had fair, pale skin, and long hair up to her shoulders as far as Gaige could make out. "Lemme get that for ya. Executing Phaseshift." She said. The eye next to the door turned blue again and the door to the Barge began to open.

Gaige and the other Vault Hunters stepped into the barge, it was filled with crates. Gaige saw Salvador walk up to the one in the middle and open it, it had a shotgun in it and several clips of ammo. " Impresionante!" said Salvador as he picked up the shotgun. "Don't you want to offer it to anyone else, Salvador?" said Maya, an annoyed look on her face. "Sorry Chica, anyone want this shotgun?" Nobody used shotguns, except Salvador, Gaige thought and Salvador replied positively "I didn't think so, you amigos don't like shotguns." Axton spoke up "We should rest. Everyone find a place to settle down." Claptrap protested "Minions, we should get to Liar's Berg!" Gaige saw Tracyn walk up Claptrap, bend down to his level and grab him "Droid, we are waiting, got that?" Claptrap replied in a frightened manner "If you say so fearsome Minion!" "Good." Came the reply from Tracyn as he sat next to a crate.

**Axton's perspective**

Axton saw the perfect opportunity to ask several questions that he had in his mind, about well all of them. He knew he would get asked as well, but there was nothing he was worried about sharing of course. Axton thought he would ask the youngest member of their team, and seemingly the most innocent what she was doing all the way out on a border world. "So Gaige, what's your story?" asked Axton casually almost as if he wasn't interested in the answer. He saw Gaige think for a moment before answering "Well it's a long story, but I guess we have some time. It all started around the time of the annual Eden-5 science fair. I heard that my rival Marcy Holloway was having her Dad's indentured labourers build her a miniature thermo sonic reactor, because apparently all the money in the galaxy couldn't buy you originality." Salvador and Axton gave a small chuckle in response to Gaige's last statement, although Axton understood better how Marcy was being un-original. Gaige continued "Anyways, I had an idea that would trump Marcy's project like a Bazillion times over. I came up with the Mechanized Anti-Bully Deterrent, or project DT for short. What happened was that Marcy reported my project to the school board, something about how a giant laser wielding robot would be dangerous or something, I really hated her. She then ripped off my designs and sold them to the Fascist, corrupt cops. I went about tweaking DT before the science fair. At the science fair the judges were like really impressed by Death Trap, Marcy's bot couldn't even fire two lasers with overheating! Well Marcy's dad bought off the Judges panel. Because he has more money than GOD, and they gave Marcy's bot first and I earned, third place. Now if that's not a lesson in politics I don't know what is! Anyways Marcy came over and started gloating and then she pushed me, which caused Deathtrap to identify her as a threat and he slashed her with his claws, which is what he's supposed to do. I must've made a mistake when I was adding the discord circuits cause when Deathtrap touched Marcy, she exploded, okay! After they finished cleaning up the auditorium I found out I wasn't getting expelled or arrested I was getting expelled _and_ arrested. So I called up my Dad and asked him to create a distraction, which he's very good at. It involved a golf cart and some gasoline, but anyways, we decided I should head to somewhere where I could be safe from the cops and their "Crime Buster Bots" so I got a ticket to Pandora. I mean I was always interested in vault hunting and the Hyperion occupation but yeah…" Gaige looked around, everyone was silent, Maya finally spoke up "That sounds horrible." She said with pauses between each word. "None of this seems to be your fault. It is horrible that you had to go through this, and at such a young age." Salvador nodded in agreement "Its okay, we're here for you niña." "Thanks." Gaige said weakly.

Axton spoke again "So anybody else?" he was secretly hoping that Tracyn would volunteer, instead Maya did, which was fine too. "I'll go," Maya replied. "I was born on Athenas, I didn't know my parents, but I was raised by the monks. I found out they were using me to control the populace, so I shot the head monk and left. That simple." Axton made a weird face "Oooookay. Anybody else?" Salvador raised his hand "I'll go amigo!" he then continued "It started when I was being sentenced to be hanged for killing some bandits. The townspeople didn't agree with me and they wanted me dead. Hyperion then arrived declaring the town theirs, shooting people, even the judge who went to stop them. I then caught one of those Hyperion Pendejos and "talked" to him. He told me about the Vault and that's how I started. Axton replied "Just what I thought, you're a local. What about you Tracyn?"

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn took off his helmet and looked at Gaige "Remember when you saw Data and I in the snow after the train crash? We both had out helmets off, well I know what you saw, so there's no point hiding any longer; Data and I are clones. We aren't actually from this Galaxy either." Tracyn looked up at the rest of the Vault Hunters who were now staring at him in shock. He took off his helmet and continued "Yes that's right. The fact is that I am actually part of a large clone army created to fight a war going on in my Galaxy, between the Galactic republic and the Separatist Alliance. Who they are and what they are fighting for does not matter, all that you need to know is that while my squad and I were evacuating from a botched mission, we were attacked by separatist droid fighters. The Separatists are actually a lot like Hyperion; they have a crazy egotistical leader, and they mainly use robotic troops. Anyway what happened is that our faster than light drive malfunctioned." Gaige interrupted "You have those?!" Tracyn continued "Yeah, but those have been around for ages. Well ours malfunctioned and brought us here. We heard that Handsome b****** talk about wanting vault hunters and thought that we could use their comms to contact the Republic, but that's um not going to happen, even if it were possible. On our way to the train station our shuttle was shot down by Hyperion, leaving only Data and I alive. We made our way into the train claiming to be Vault Hunters, in truth I still don't know what's in that Vault, but I do not care, I only care about ripping out Handsome Jack's kriffing throat and stuffing it down what's left of his neck." Tracyn realized that his gauntlet vibroblade was out, and retracted it. He continued "Data and my men were all I had, and I was all they had. We had no mothers to care for us, no fathers to guide us only simulators and training sergeants to teach us to kill. In that one singular purpose we would be there for each other, we had each other's backs. Data deserved to go down fighting, and I could've done better." Tracyn realised that his head was in his hands and tears had welled up in his eyes. He hadn't cried since he was an infant, losing his brothers was taking a toll on him, he had to pull it together.

Tracyn looked up, all the Vault Hunters were looking at him, Zer0 spoke before anyone did, but strangely not in Haiku "I speak in Haiku's because it is a challenge, I came to Pandora seeking a challenge. No challenge is greater however than losing your anchor to humanity, but it is one you do not have to go through alone, vode." Tracyn smiled as he realised that Zer0 spoke called him brother , in Mandalorian. "I know it appears that I do not listen, but I would not be here if I did not, you are indeed Tracyn, my brother." Axton interjected "Wow, and I thought that getting thrown out of the Military and divorced by the same person is pretty bad. But now, I've heard it all." Tracyn smiled "Sergeant Kal did say that marriage was far harder than any other battle." Everyone laughed, Salvador gave a yawn and then spoke "Well amigos, it was great getting to know you, but I'm gonna hit the sack. Good night." Salvador set his head on a crate and began to snore loudly. Tracyn saw Axton stretch before leaning against the wall, he saw Zer0 sitting cross legged, not moving, obviously asleep. Tracyn took one look around the room before falling asleep.

**Maya's Perspective**

Before hearing Tracyn's story Maya thought that what she had been through was a troubled childhood. Being trained to fight and die from birth, knowing nothing else, that was far worse, Tracyn seemed fine but she could feel with her mind that he was not, she would speak to him later. Gaige's voice interrupted Maya's thoughts "Maya, do you think he's telling the truth?" Gaige asked closing the barge's door. Maya replied "I don't think I know, I can feel his pain." Gaige replied "Must be cool being a siren." Maya softly replied "Yeah, I guess it is." Maya felt Gaige lean on her, she looked down to tell her to get off but the only thing she saw was an innocent young girl, dead tired from adjusting to the new life fate threw at her. Maya smiled to herself, she put one of her hands around Gaige's shoulders and fell asleep.

**Alright guys 4****th**** chapter up. I would really appreciate reviews, just say anything even if it is one word, it helps me to know you guys are actually reading it not just well looking at it and leaving cause maybe you don't like it. Also I know that Zer0 is supposed to be a lone wolf but he isn't heartless. He also recognises a part of himself in Tracyn, the part which knows not much else other than combat. Until next time…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Maya's Perspective**

Maya awoke to the unpleasant sensation of cold air barraging her face. She looked beside her to see that Gaige was no longer there; when she looked around she couldn't see Axton, Salvador, Tracyn or even Zer0. Maya became alarmed, she jumped to her feet reaching for her fire elemental Maliwan SMG. Maya rounded the yellow crate she was sleeping on and saw that the Barge's door was open. Through the door she could see that the remaining vault hunters save for Tracyn and Zer0 stood in a semi-circle watching something.

Maya walked up to the group, Axton heard her coming and said "Maya, you're awake…" but that was all he got out as Maya pushed past him to the front of the semi-circle of Vault Hunters. What Maya saw shocked her; Zer0 and Tracyn were fighting each other. The more Maya looked at it however it seemed more like they were sparring with each other; Zer0 had his katana in his hand and was lunging at Tracyn who had two short blades coming out of his wrist gauntlets. Tracyn as Maya could see had strength over Zer0 but Zer0 had the agility and skill. Zer0 stabbed at Tracyn only for Tracyn to parry his attacks away. Tracyn attempted to stab Zer0 only to have his hand knocked downwards, Tracyn stepped backward just in time two avoid Zer0's blade which cut part of his blast Kama. Maya was impressed, not with Zer0, whose reputation preceded him, but with Tracyn, despite his muscle mass he was surprisingly agile.

Zer0 took another swipe at Tracyn only for his sword to be knocked upwards; Zer0 then flipped over Tracyn, big mistake; Tracyn's foot caught Zer0's midsection mid-air and went right through it. Maya saw Tracyn turn around to see Zer0 standing behind him with his Katana held to Tracyn's neck. A smiley face appeared on Zer0's visor and then he spoke "That was a fine fight / I say that due to your skill / Not because I won." Maya saw Tracyn punch Zer0's shoulder "You cheeky bugger." He replied.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige had woken up to the sounds of metal clanging on metal and went out to see what was happening when she saw Zer0 and Tracyn sparring. They were both surprised to see her and stopped. When asked if they woke her up she denied it because she thought that it was awesome. She had always figured Zer0 as the lone wolf type, but she guessed that something Tracyn said must've clicked.

Despite Tracyn's physical prowess she would still bet that Zer0 was going to win. Not long afterward Axton and Salvador arrived saying nothing entranced by and not wanting to disturb the two sparring warriors. Gaige soon saw Maya arrive and thought she was going to dish out a lecture, but she didn't she also just stood silently and watched, her confused expression changing to that of awe.

When Zer0 turned out to be the winner, Gaige was not even surprised. Gaige held out her first for Zer0 "Way to go Z!" she yelled out. Gaige heard Tracyn protest "No fair, I thought this was a test of skill not who has a cloaking field!" Gaige smiled as she heard Zer0's reply "I didn't know they/ were any different /Tracyn (pronouncing it Trah-see-in). Gaige knew that Tracyn had rolled his eyes when he walked away shaking his head.

Claptrap's voice interrupted Gaige's thoughts "Minions we need to get to Liar's Berg; I _need_ my eye back in my head!" Claptrap then went ahead and the group followed. Gaige ran to catch up to Tracyn and Zer0. Gaige wanted to talk to Zer0 about what happened in the morning "Hey Z, what's up with the morning sparring?" Tracyn replied "Zer0 and I decided that we would keep ourselves occupied while waiting for you lot to wake up." "Practise is needed/ to attain perfection/ in combat"

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn watched Gaige as she skipped along behind both Zer0 and himself; she seemed to want to know more about the morning's proceedings. In truth it had been a completely random happening, Zer0 was talking to Tracyn about his squad and his prowess in long ranged combat. Tracyn had told Zer0 that he was the Designated Marksman but he had also cross-trained in close quarters combat and knew his way around the controls of a shuttle.

It was then that Zer0 drew his Katana and challenged him to a sparring match. Tracyn knew he was going to lose but thought that he had might as well try, Zer0 was obviously trying to get him to take his mind off his squad's death. Zer0 had gone from being mostly silent and cryptic to being mostly friendly with him; Tracyn couldn't help but wonder why. Zer0 had even taught Tracyn how to use the ECHO net and had helped him change out his suits damaged comm network for and ECHO communicator that worked with his suit.

Claptrap's voice soon penetrated his ears "Keep your wits about you minion—this glacier is run by a bandit named Captain Flynt. The Jerk kept me as his torture plaything for a few-" Tracyn didn't bother to listen to the rest, that was probably, no definitely, more nonsense. As they walked on Tracyn could see they were standing on a ridge, below them was a small settlement. Claptrap spoke again "There it is minions, Liar's Berg. Now, let's find Sir Hammerlock and get my eye fixed." Just then another voice could be heard in Tracyn's helmet, a voice he hated with every fibre of his being. "People of Pandora! Handsome Jack here, offering a million bucks to whoever brings me the head of the Vault Hunters who just arrived in Liar's Berg. Oh and I'm still offering a reward for Roland-the mass murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders. Good Hunting!" Handsome Jack's voice continued except this time obviously only addressed to the Vault Hunters "Now you see, I know all of you, do you understand how doomed you are, just turn yourselves in and I promise your death will be painless. No I'm just kidding, they won't be. But to prove that I know you I'll call you out one by one, okay Kiddos? Hmm, Maya, a siren, pshhh, I've killed sirens before." Tracyn saw Maya's face become red with anger and her tattoos become a brighter blue. Jack continued "Axton, a commando, well I won't even have to kill you, just tell your ex-wife where to find you. Hahahaha, anyways. Salvador, you're from around here my men have killed locals before they'll do it again." Tracyn saw both Salvador and Axton clench fists, Salvador even swore under his breath. Jack continued "Zer0, a master assassin. I have several under my payroll, you should be no problem. And Gaige," he then put on a mocking tone "Aww, is ooo feewing cold? Does ooo want a widdle hot cocoa? Stupid girl, you know Mr Holloway is a friend, you are going to PAY for what you did, but unlike Marcy's yours will be painful!" Tracyn saw Gaige grip her gun tighter, she looked around shiftily, until Maya put her hand on Gaige's shoulder. Jack started again "And that leaves mister white knight, seriously what is UP with that skirt? Is it some kind of protection? Didn't seem to help your friends much, that's right, I found the remains, you're not as good as you think. But the funny thing is I don't know much about you, besides your terrible choice in attire. Ah well I find out everything anyways, have fun!"

**Handsome Jack's Perspective**

Jack frowned as he ended the ECHO communication; he really had no idea who this person was. The shuttle was shot down on his orders, assuming they were Vault Hunters with a damaged shuttle. But there was something about the way they were outfitted that made Jack uneasy, the thick armor the assault shuttle, they were definitely military of some kind. They couldn't be Dahl, or then Axton would be dead, and Dahl had no more deserters in this area who could they be?

Jack asked Angel "Angel, did the analysis of the shuttle crash come back?" Angel replied "Yes Jack, the Lab analysis shows some very interesting results. Firstly the shuttle's hull is a strong compound of metals and the damage that was done to it that enabled us to shoot them down so easily was done by very high powered lasers." "Yeah, don't we have those?" "No, these were done by Lasers several times more powerful than our auto turrets." "Oh?" asked a surprised Jack. "Additionally the metals that make up this compound have been found on asteroids near the edge of our galaxy." Handsome Jack sighed "Okay so they're mercs with tons of funding, big deal." "No, studies show that these meteors only appear after huge electrical storms. These storms give off huge gravity readings." Jack sighed again "In English Angel?" "They are not from our Galaxy." Jack stroked his chin "Interesting." He then proceeded to turn to holographic display with the Vault Symbol on it and repeat himself.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 crouched and took up position at the top of the ridge while the rest of the Vault hunters moved downward to engage the Bullymongs outside Liars Berg. Zer0 looked through his scope to see Gaige's face, he looked up annoyed. In front of him stood Gaige and Axton, Axton then proceeded to say "Zer0, I want you to look after Gaige, teach her to shoot, she shoots more inaccurately than a Truxican on steroids." From below Zer0 heard Salvador shout out "I heard that Pendejos!" Zer0 then replied "Very well, I will/ Babysit Gaige for you then/ go have fun killing!" Gaige protested "Hey, I don't need babysitting, maybe training but not babysitting!" Zer0 looked over at Gaige, she still had her Dahl SMG that he had given her, he then digistructed his spare sniper rifle and gave it to her. "Shoulder the rifle, and then look into the scope."

Gaige shouldered the rifle awkwardly the rifle's stock under her arm and her other hand close to the magazine. Zer0 huffed "No Gaige, not like that, place the stock on your shoulder" Gaige was fumbling but Zer0 moved the stock up to her shoulder, Gaige looked into Zer0's faceplate as he did so. Zer0 stopped adjusting the gun's position and looked over his shoulder; Tracyn had stopped firing. Tracyn looked at Zer0 and then nodded in the direction of Gaige, Zer0 displayed a "?" on his helmet. Tracyn shook his head and continued firing.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige was shocked that Tracyn had decided to tell Zer0 without asking her, and even more shocked that Tracyn had decided to tell Zer0 without asking her. Gaige couldn't help herself, everything about the enigma known as Zer0 drew her in; the way he spoke, his exceptional skill. Gaige heard a voice interrupt her thoughts "A million bucks? Alright boys- I want you to find those Vault Hunters and bring 'em to me! NOW!" The name on her HUD said "Captain Flynt" this was the bandit that claptrap was talking about. The group reached the gate of Liars Berg, and Axton asked Zer0 "Her aim improving much Zer0?" Zer0 shook his head. Axton spoke again "Never mind, Claptrap, open this gate." Claptrap hit some buttons on the intercom, while Gaige watched though she knew that Axton worried about Gaige's safety she couldn't help but feel offended, she had managed to kill the Bullymongs earlier, what did accuracy matter? In fact, to her, accuracy seemed overrated. Maybe Axton had a point, he was a Soldier once, and he had been doing this, for a while.

Claptrap finally spoke "Hey Hammerlock!" A British accented voice then spoke in all their ECHOS "Spectacular-First Captain Flynt's bandits attack, then Claptrap shows up! I must've been horrifyingly cruel to puppies in a previous life to deserve this kind of treatment. I say Vault Hunters-could you kill Flynt's men for me?" Sir Hammerlock's portrait in Gaige's HUD was that of a man with a large grey handlebar moustache and spectacles with a large hat on his head. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gunshot, Gaige turned to the right to see Zer0 holding his sniper rifle, a marauder lying dead 20 feet ahead. Gaige saw Tracyn fire three rounds into another and the gate at the entrance of the town fell to the ground.

The team jumped into action, Zer0 jumped onto a nearby roof and fired his sniper rifle, Tracyn took cover behind a dumpster and fired. Salvador was dual wielding two Valdof assault rifles and Maya had phase locked a Marauder who Axton proceeded to shoot at. Suddenly Maya's shield gave way and three rounds hit her arm, the phaselock disappeared. Axton rolled out of the way but quickly ran to her side screaming out her name. Gaige saw that Salvador was out of rounds and running for cover, Gaige didn't know what to do. There were four Marauders who were firing at them; she checked her artificial hand- Deathtrap was not ready. Gaige then lifted her SMG and sprayed at the four Marauders emptying her clip. The hail of rounds caught the Marauders unaware; one by one they dropped like sacks of potatoes. Captain Flynt's voice boomed in her ears "What is WRONG with you boys, kill those skaglicks so's we can get our reward!" Gaige watched as gunfire from Tracyn and Zer0 dropped the remaining bandits and Captain Flynt yelled again "Dammit! This ain't over grinder!" Gaige rushed over to where Maya and Axton sat in the snow, the snow around Maya's exposed arm had turned red.

**Axton's Perspective**

Axton sat next to Maya in the snow, he had just managed to tie a tourniquet to stop the bleeding but she was going to need stitches or an instahealth, but seeing as the Zed's Meds vending machines were not working that would be easier said than done. Axton saw the rest of the team approach, he asked "Any of you have an instahealth?" Everyone shook their heads but Tracyn spoke up "I can do one better, I'll get Claptrap to open that gate, it must be where this Hammerlock lives." Axton heard Gaige speak soon after "Hey Tracyn, maybe he needs someone who doesn't make him fear for his life. I mean I'm really good with robots, so maybe I'll get further?" Axton watched as Tracyn nodded and Gaige walked toward Claptrap.

Axton saw some conversing between the tiny robot and Gaige and then heard Claptrap's voice in his ECHO "Hey Hammerlock! Since my minions saved your town you wanna do your bestie Claptrap a favour and repair my eye?!" Hammerlock responded with "Yes, I suppose I am in your debt now aren't I? Come to my shack, and I shall restore Claptrap's sight. First I shall shut off the electrical fence for you." Axton breathed a sigh of relief; he helped Maya to her feet and helped her to walk over to the gate, the others in tow. Hammerlock spoke again "Please stay back Vault Hunters-let Claptrap go first" Axton was apprehensive why did he want that? Then Axton say the reason, the fence wires still had electricity coursing through them. Claptrap walked up to the gate only to get shocked and fall down. Axton heard Gaige suddenly yell out "What was that for?" for Hammerlock to reply "Apologies but when Claptrap speaks, I feel my Brain cells committing suicide, one by one. I shall be out directly.

Axton walked forward helping Maya do so as well, until the door to Hammerlock's shack opened and Hammerlock himself stepped out and saluted them "A pleasure to meet you Vault Hunters, I am Sir Hammerlock-At your service. Hammerlock saw Maya and rushed over. "Here take this insta-health," Axton grabbed it and injected it into Maya's arm which quickly healed up. Maya now stood up on her own strength, but slipped when she tried to walk, Axton rushed to her side and helped her up. Hammerlock spoke again "Maybe you should rest before continuing, I welcome you into my humble abode." Axton walked into Hammerlock's house with the rest of the Vault Hunters.

When Axton walked through the door he realised they were in a living room of sorts with a Bullymong fur carpet. There were three couches Axton sat Maya down on one of them and took a seat next to her. "Thanks Axton." Replied Maya, Axton then answered her "No problem." Zer0, Tracyn and Gaige were nowhere to be seen and Salvador was sitting in another couch taking a nap. Axton but his hands behind his head and reclined they would be fine.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn laid his damaged Westar M5 on Hammerlock's work table. Hammerlock had shown him the room in case they needed to work on their gear. Tracyn looked at the weapon, and the four spare ammo clips. The clip's level indicators were a dull colour instead of the bright red they usually were. The lack of power cells meant that the weapon would not fire, but if he could make a new power supply that would work. Tracyn sighed he was no engineer, how was he going to do this? He decided he would check his flamethrower, there was about half a gas canister left, he knew he saw an gas tank somewhere. When he turned around to check he saw Gaige standing in the doorway "Watcha doin? She asked. "Trying to get my blaster to work," replied Tracyn. Gaige walked up to where the weapon lay on the table. "Hmm, what's the problem?" she asked "The power cells are damaged, it won't fire without them." Gaige made a suggestion "What about a miniature portable generator?" Tracyn replied to Gaige's statement "A miniature generator would work, only I'm not an engineer ." Gaige smiled at him coyly "Guess who is?" Tracyn understood what she meant and relinquished his seat.

Tracyn watched as Gaige dismantled Tracyn's power cells and the part of the blaster that they slotted into. Tracyn watches as Gaige had a small device in front of her making adjustments and additions to it every minute. Soon she had a small device about the size of his regular power cell only more bulky. Gaige plugged it in and the gun made a small humming sound, it worked! Gaige then yelled out "Am I AWESOME or WHAT?! This is a miniature power cell that has a small generator, so it will regenerate power slowly." Tracyn's jaw dropped, Republic Procurement couldn't do better, he picked up his gun and smiled "That's a really nice job Gaige, want to go test it?" Gaige literally jumped up and down with excitement "Yes, yes, yes!"

**Okay so that's Chapter 5. So yeah, Tracyn now has his Blaster working, in terms of Borderlands weapon strengths think of a Hammer Buster but shoots blaster bolts instead of bullets. Also I hope I am getting the Characters right. Additionally I would really appreciate it if someone told me what I was doing right and what I am doing wrong. Till next time…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn walked outside with his Westar M5 in his hands, the Dahl Defender assault rifle that Axton gave him was slung across his back. As they came around the side of the house Gaige and Tracyn saw Hammerlock waiting outside talking to Claptrap. Hammerlock turned to face the two of them, "Ah I see you got your rifle fixed! Looking for something to shoot at? If so there are some Bullymongs in the town that I would like you to dispose of!" Claptrap disregarded Hammerlock's statement "Minions, we need to get my ship back so we can get to Sanctuary!" Tracyn looked at Claptrap sternly "Go and annoy Axton." Claptrap hesitantly replied "Okay scary minion, whatever you say!" and wheeled off in the direction of Hammerlock's shack.

Tracyn saw the group of Bullymongs hanging around in the town's cemetery and he looked at Gaige "Ready to have some fun?" Gaige looked up at him and nodded in response "You bet!" Tracyn stood at the entrance to the cemetery and took aim; this would either blow up in his face horribly or toast the Bullymong he was aiming at. The blaster fired and the bullymong dropped to the ground, dead as the blaster bolt went through his brain. Gaige screamed next to him "It works! I am a genius!" Three other Bullymongs turned toward him and jumped through the air, he fired three more bolts killing two. The third Bullymong landed in front of him nearly dead, leaving Tracyn to finish it off with a slash from his vibroblade.

Gaige stood next to him with her SMG in her hand, "Well we know it works! Great job by the way!" Tracyn nodded and turned around only to find himself staring into the ugly face of a Bullymong. "Well, kriff!" exclaimed Tracyn before getting knocked off his feet, he saw Gaige empty the entire magazine of her SMG but hit almost nothing but air, only a few rounds finding their target. The Bullymong walked closer to Gaige and was about to swipe at her, until its head exploded into orange mist. Tracyn got to his feet and saw Zer0 standing in the centre of town with a still smoking sniper rifle in his hands. Zer0 then flashed a smiley emoticon on his helmet. All Gaige could say was "Whoa, nice shot Zer0!" Tracyn nodded at Zer0, "Thanks, but I had it under control." Zer0 simply answered back "A critical kill / Showers you in blood and spit / How enjoyable." Tracyn looked down at himself and saw indeed there was a mix of spit and blood on his armor, disgusting. He just shook his head and walked back toward Hammerlock's hut.

**Axton's Perspective**

Right as Axton saw Tracyn and Gaige leave Hammerlock's work area; he decided to make use of it. Right before he left Dahl, Axton had grabbed several turret field repair kits. He then activated and placed his turret on the worktable and digistructed two of the kits from this SDU. The blast in the train had damaged the second barrel, but he was going to fix that. He took out a barrel replacement and changed out the damaged receiver, his turret was as good as new. Axton then left the room after he completed his upgrades, smiling like a giddy little school girl. He then walked into Hammerlock's living room, where he saw Maya meditating and Salvador taping two assault rifle magazines together guerrilla style, smiling ear to ear, obviously everyone was taking some time to upgrade their gear, except for Maya who was upgrading well, herself.

Axton turned to Salvador "Have a good nap Sal?" Salvador looked up from his gun and said "I'll say hombre!" Axton just shook his head walked toward Maya; he started to wave his hand in front of her face "Maya? Um, we should get going." Salvador started making cutting gestures across his neck, but Maya slowly opened her eyes "Yes, we should." With that Maya got to her feet and Salvador's face had an expression of utter shock, which Axton knew translated to "How the hell did you manage that?!" Axton walked outside followed by Maya and Salvador to where Zer0, Tracyn and Gaige stood.

Gaige had a sniper rifle shouldered and was attempting to shoot several Rakks out of the sky, unsuccessfully however. Tracyn stood beside them fiddling with his flamethrower. Axton walked up toward them and was going to speak until he was interrupted by Claptrap "Minions, good to see you're done napping! Now, let's go and get my ship back, onwards!" Axton shook his head as both him and the rest of the Vault Hunters followed Claptrap to a small gate house, Zer0 hit the switch and then jumped off the gatehouse onto the slope behind them. They then exited through the town's gate. As they walked on Axton saw several small huts, a couple marauders and a psycho who walked between them.

Axton saw Zer0 raise his sniper rifle, but he put his hand up, he wanted to try his turret. "Zer0, I've got this." Axton threw his turret down several feet ahead of them, and it opened up and sent a hail of lead downrange. Axton saw the look on the other Vault hunter's faces, those whose faces he could see at least. They were a mix of awe and jealousy, the latter emotion displaying itself more prominently on Gaige's. In a few short seconds and several dead bandits later the turret stopped firing. Claptrap suddenly burst out "Minion, what have you done?! Those were human beings with lives and families! – I'm totally kidding SCREW those guys!" a very annoyed Gaige yelled out in response from behind Claptrap "Shut up, Claptrap!"

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 watched as the rest of the Vault Hunters headed ahead toward another bandit settlement. Zer0 found himself truly impressed with Axton's turret's capabilities, while on his own Zer0 thought that Axton was less than impressive. Zer0 reminded himself, as he set his sights on an unwary marauder that it was Axton's leadership skills that have kept the group and quite possibly himself alive so far. The Marauder's head blew open in a fantastic display of blood and gore, signalling the rest of the team to move in on the rest.

Zer0 watched as Tracyn cut down two marauders with only four rounds, two well-placed chest shots each. His new gun was very effective. Salvador killed two psychos in a hail of bullets, leaving Zer0 to take out a killer marauder that he missed. Axton shot another psycho who was advancing on Gaige's position after she all but shot his legs off and Maya phase locked one of them. Zer0 watched as she drew her gun to blast it to bits, only for Tracyn to shoot it in the head.

A voice boomed in Zer0's ECHO "I'm racking my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony that I bought, I was going to name it piss for brains in honour of you losers, but that just feels immature. Maybe…Butt Stallion? Yeah, that way it even fits your strange friend with the skirt! Yeah, but hmmm, I'll tell you what I'll give it some more thought." Zer0 thought about how strange an experience that was; he was going to enjoy killing Jack.

Zer0 made his way toward the rest of the vault hunters, Axton turned toward Zer0 and then spoke to Claptrap "Claptrap, we're all here, open the gate." Claptrap responded with "Sure thing minion, AAAAND OPEN!" Zer0 watched as the drawbridge like door, opened only to reveal two suicide psychos on the other side, he heard Axton yell out from next to him "Oh shit..." Zer0 stayed calm, he threw two kunai that embedded themselves in the chests of the two approaching psychos killing them. Zer0 saw Gaige do a double take, "Where did those come from?" Zer0 displayed a smiley emoticon on his helmet. "Nice one Z, where you been hiding those?" replied Gaige. Zer0 simply displayed a ": p" emoticon on his helmet.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige watched as Zer0 walked up to the two dead psychos and pulled out the two bloody kunai. She watched him as he cleaned them and them put them away, as much as she was beginning to like Zer0, she had to remind herself that he was a cold blooded assassin. She raised her gun and was about to walk across the bridge when Handsome Jack's voice burst out in her ears "Oh and I thought that I should clarify, the diamond pony that I was talking about its not a statue or anything it's a pony, made of diamond. Butt Stallion, come here girl -" Gaige could hear whinnying in the background but she didn't bother to listen to more of Jack's rambling.

Gaige followed the others to a small elevator that took them down to a lower area. Once the elevator reached its destination, which wasn't far, the Vault Hunters stepped off the platform. The scene that lay before them was interesting to say the least, there were debris from a ship lying everywhere and at the far end was a building of sorts. What lay in front of the building however was a large two barrelled cannon.

Gaige watched as a bandit in yellow garb and what looked like a welding mask jumped onto the seat on the cannon and yelled out "Light the fuses, b******!" Beside him a shotgun wielding midget in similar attire, jumped into the air beside him "I'm ready to blow!" Gaige and the others Vault Hunters dived behind some debris as Axton yelled out "Get to cover!" Axton looked at each of the Vault Hunters before saying "Okay, this is the plan. Maya, Gaige and Sal take the midget. Tracyn, Zer0 and I will take out that cannon, then we focus on Boom. Any questions?" Salvador spoke up "Yeah, why do we get the midget?" Gaige saw Maya roll her eyes and drag Salvador out of cover. Gaige followed the two of them but stopped dead when she saw Boom aim at them with the cannon.

Just then several blue lasers flew out of nowhere and hit the side of the cannon, leaving red hot scorch marks where they impacted. Gaige heard Maya yell out from next to her "They've got this, let's move!" beside her Salvador nodded, and they moved to where Bewm had landed. Bewm fired a round in their general direction only for their shields to absorb it. Maya quickly phase locked him leaving him squirming in the air. Gaige saw an opportunity and took it, she summoned Deathtrap. Deathtrap flew past Salvador who was about to use two Vladof assault rifles to pummel the midget full of lead but stopped when he saw Deathtrap. Deathtrap tore into the midget with his digistruct claws, aided by Maya and Gaige who used a Maliwan fire elemental and Dahl SMG respectively to shred him. As the phaselock ended Bewm fell to the ground, now very dead. Gaige rested her SMG on her shoulder, but was quickly horrified with the ease that she had in killing another human. It's okay, he was going to kill you, she told herself. She had hardly been on Pandora for two days and was already comfortable with killing? Was this what it was going to take to find the Vault, become a mindless killer? She had become so absorbed with her thoughts that she just managed to hear Salvador yell out "Look out Nina!" Gaige felt herself being knocked to the floor, face first. She turned around to see a psycho standing over her, three more headed in Maya's direction who was firing at them with her SMG, while they screamed something about eating her babies.

Gaige closed her eyes as she waited for the end, she had heard about the Hyperion New-U stations but she hadn't entered her DNA into them, if she died now that would be it. The psycho lifted the buzz axe above his head, however he never brought it down; he was sliced in two. Gaige could make out the faint outline of a Digistruct blade; Zer0's Digistruct blade. Gaige nearly choked on the blood as she was pulled to her feet. She heard Zer0 speak "Gaige, are you okay? / You could have died, watch your back. / I can't always." Gaige smiled, he cared. She removed that thought from her head, of course he cared, they were friends, nothing more.

**Tracyn's perspective **

Tracyn watched as Gaige, Maya and Salvador walked away to fight the midget. It was up to Zer0, Axton and him to take out the big cannon. That was fine; he was used to the big jobs, with or without his team. If he was to be honest however, he would definitely say that his new team was as close to his squad as he was going to get. Tracyn knew that Axton would not be able to deploy his turret, it would get fried. Axton suddenly spoke up "Okay, so anybody got any ideas?" Tracyn replied "Didn't you have one?" "Nope, my plan ended with us taking on the big ass cannon!" "Hmm…" Tracyn saw that the cannon was aiming at the other Vault Hunters and jumped into action, leaving Axton asking where he was going. Tracyn raised his gun and fired at the cannon, getting its attention but also damaging it, smoke bellowed out from where the blaster bolts hit it.

From beside him Axton sprayed bullets at the operator, whilst throwing a grenade at it. The blast had damaged the cannon so badly that Boom got out of it and charged at them. A sniper shot from behind Tracyn caught Boom unawares and knocked him to the floor, Tracyn wasted no time and ran up to him, proceeding to fire multiple bolts into him that bypassed his armor and melted his face. Satisfied that he was dead, Tracyn walked up to Axton who held his fist out toward him. Tracyn was confused, what was he supposed to do? Axton knowing that Tracyn didn't know what to do then said "Tracyn, you knock your fist into mine, it's my way of showing respect, you know, for, um, taking the initiative!" Tracyn then replied "Oh, right," and awkwardly bumped his fist into Axton's.

Tracyn saw Zer0 helping Gaige to her feet, beside her was a psycho that had been cleaved in half. Gaige had a small smile on her face as she was being helped up, she was hopelessly infatuated with him, he just didn't see it. The group of Vault Hunters clustered around Claptrap. Claptrap then yelled out "Minions, onwards!" he proceeded toward a large gate. When he reached there he began muttering "Raggin' Fraggin' locked gate – idea! Minion, one of you get on that cannon!" Tracyn saw that Salvador had already got up on top of the cannon, and was in the gunner seat. "Alright, now you can blast this gate open, but don't do it till I am out the way! Understand? If you shot the gate now that could cause serious AHHHH!" before Claptrap could finish Salvador shot the gate sending Claptrap flying.

Tracyn saw Axton shoot Salvador a look, for Salvador to shrug and say "What? He was annoying me!" Axton then yelled back "But ya didn't have to shoot him, with a cannon!" "He wouldn't move!" complained Salvador. Tracyn saw movement through the destroyed gate and activated his range finder. He could see a small horde of approaching bandits, "Not to interrupt you two but we have incoming!" Tracyn and the rest of the Vault Hunters turned toward the gate, but Salvador screamed out "Amigos, I've got this! Say hello to my little friend!" Salvador fired the cannon at the approaching horde, killing several of them. Salvador laughed maniacally, even putting Tracyn at unease, as he fired round after round into the horde. Several dead bandits later Salvador jumped off the turret and said, "Heh, that was fun."

Tracyn walked ahead of the others past the gate, he saw in front of him a small pirate encampment, and a ways ahead of that the main pirate camp. Tracyn knew that he alone, maybe two more Vault Hunters could sneak past the smaller camp, but all six of them? That was not going to happen. A small group of Rakks were now swooping down on the unsuspecting pirates, just then Zer0 walked beside him, Salvador walked past him on his other side, and Axton moved a few steps ahead of him. Salvador hefted an explosive torgue assault rifle in one hand obviously having obtained it from the corpses of either Boom or Bewm, Tracyn shook his head "We might alert the main camp, we need to take them out quietly." Axton nodded "Agreed. Zer0, you and Tracyn go in and take them out." Tracyn and Zer0 nodded in unison and walked toward the pirate camp, whose two occupants were still shooting at Rakks, unaware of their impending doom.

Tracyn crouched behind a crate that was lying around, his target; a marauder was unaware of his presence. He stepped out from behind the crate and removed his Vibroblade and stepped behind the man. He then grabbed him, covering where his mouth would be and stabbing the blade into his neck. All the marauder managed to do was struggle before falling limp in Tracyn's hands.

**Salvador's Perspective**

Salvador watched as Tracyn gave a thumbs up to Axton from where he stood in the camp, it was clear. The rest of the group made their way toward the gate. Salvador and the others made their way down the slope toward the main pirate camp. Salvador, saw some open chests near the old pirate camp from where Zer0 and Tracyn emerged. "Amigos, money does not interest you?" Zer0 first replied "I seek a Challenge/ I am not short on funds / I see no need." Salvador looked at Tracyn, who answered the question posed to him "What am I going to do with money, never got paid earlier, I wouldn't know what to do with it."

Ironically this started a discussion "You never got paid?" asked Axton. Tracyn shook his head in response. Salvador was stunned, not paid, yet he fought for this Republic. "Tracyn amigo, you never asked for any?" "My commanders weren't exactly asking; Hey, ARC-44, you want a salary, free medical? Well that was free anyway so..." Salvador was truly shocked, Tracyn mentioned being part of an army of clones, were they all unpaid, Like some sort of slave army? At any rate, if they were all like Tracyn, then Salvador felt bad for the enemies of this "Republic".

Axton spoke up "Sal, I think we established that no one is going to take that chump change, you can go ahead. Then let's get going." It was change, but money is money, and waste not want not,, thought Salvador. Or at least that was what his abuela told him. He quickly pocketed the cash and ran back to the group. Just as he did so that annoying robot "clap crap" or whatever it was, contacted them "So – I might have tried to stage a mutiny on Captain Flynt's ship before the flash - freeze. Which explains why his men are currently beating the crap out of me. Right guys?" another voice also boomed in his ECHO "Shut up!" That robot was in trouble.

They came to the door and Salvador saw Axton turn to him, "Sal, when they open the door, blast em'. Then lead the way and we'll fight through them and get to Claptrap. Everyone ready?" Gaige spoke up in a put on accent "No, I totally gotta do my hair first!" Both Salvador and the rest of the Vault Hunters laughed, except Axton and Tracyn. Tracyn looked confused and Axton just shook his head.

The door opened and a pair of psychos stepped out, Salvador fired two shots, killing them both. He then jumped off the ledge they were standing on and pulled out a Valdof Assault Rifle with the other hand. "BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGOS!" and ran ahead. He could make out that the others had his back, and continued on his rampage. He walked into a small clearing in the camp and shot at the Marauders that stood shocked at the sight of him. One of his rounds hit an explosive barrel sending two Marauders flying. "ADIOS PENDEJOS!" he screamed as he continued to push into the camp pumping anything that moved with lead.

**Maya's Perspective**

Maya had to admit; despite his seemingly psychotic tendencies when Salvador is "Gunzerking" he is truly in some skewed way, effective. Salvador soon of course got tired, and they stopped for a minute at the pirate supply shed, to rearm. She soon heard the now almost familiar voice of Captain Flynt over her ECHO "So Claptrap's got some new friends, huh? I gotta say I miss the little hunk o' junk – the noises he made when we set him on fire…brings a tear to my eye." Maya did a double take as she heard Flynt's voice on an automated speaker for the first time since entering the camp, they did make a lot of noise after all. "This is Captain Flynt, has anyone seen my Claptrap unit. Little bastard escaped a few months back –I've had to use Heaton as my back up torture doll." Maya winced, what an ass hole.

Maya walked next to Gaige, they proceeded until they saw Claptrap on the floor being beaten by some pirates. Maya proceeded to raise her gun as did the others until she heard a voice, a voice she thought that she would never hear again; the psycho who saved her life. Maya watched as Krieg jumped off a nearby ledge screaming something about adding their meat to his meat bicycle. The group just stood by, shocked, not sure who to shoot at. Krieg then took off after a pssycho yelling something else about how he didn't deserve a buzz axe. After ripping all the pirates in sight apart, he turned to Maya "SAVE YELLOW ROBOT FOR PRETTY LADY!"

**That's it for now, also anyone remember what Tracyn said the cross trained as? Well If you do say so, I have a surprise planned for that. Also, I know the second gun in Axton's turret fires slag, but this is a second **_**BARREL**_** not another gun, so yeah.**

**Guys please tell me what you think of Tracyn, if he needs any kind of polishing and so on. **

**Weapon drops from bosses may not be accurate, cause well, you know…**

**If I got krieg wrong tell me how to improve him.**

**Also, weapon drops from bosses may not be accurate, cause well, you know…**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 **

**Axton's Perspective **

Axton instinctively raised his gun at the Psycho in front of him, in fact so did all the other Vault Hunters, except Maya. Maya just stood there and for the life of him Axton could not figure out why, even Claptrap yelled at them "Minions, what are you waiting for? Shoot that psycho!" As he raised his assault rifle, looking down the sights, he saw Maya's body fly into his view. "Stop, don't shoot! Guys, this is that Psycho that saved my life, at the train station." At that Axton noticed the Psycho for the first time, he stood unmoving, despite the fact that they had just tried to kill him, maybe Maya was right.

"All right, um guy, you have a name?" Axton cautiously asked Krieg "I SEEK A BATH FILLED WITH BLOOD!" Axton rolled his eyes. Obviously that was a failed attempt. "Moving on, alright team move out." Axton sighed as he heard Flynt's voice over the ECHO "Got a proposition for ya Vault Hunters, surrender and become our torture buddies for life!" Axton had enough, who the hell did this guy think he was? "Sit tight buddy, we'll deliver _our _proposition to you personally!" The line stayed silent, that had worked. Maya walked up to him, her Maliwan SMG in hand, "Nice job Mr Commando, that shut Flynt up…" She smiled as they stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and then looked away, blushing.

The team had come to a large clearing, which Axton realized was directly under Flynt's pirate frigate. Just then, pirates came out of everywhere "Ambush!" yelled Axton. The team struggled to stay alive as they returned fire, Krieg had leaped in and was slicing some of them, but the amount of incoming fire was so thick that they could walk on it to the top of the ship. Axton and Zer0 were quickly rushing Gaige behind some crates, he looked to his right to see Maya, crouching next to him "What's the plan?" she asked. "Why does everyone keep asking me this, I have no plan. Kill the bad guys, that's the plan!"

Ironically she nodded and leapt over the crate she lifted her hand and a pirate suddenly became enveloped in a purple bubble, not unlike what he had seen her do earlier, except this time, a huge fiery explosion burst out from the bubble killing some of the pirates. The explosion set off a near-by barrel which killed those not burnt alive. That was single most amazing thing Axton had seen anyone do! "Nice job Maya," Axton said, trying his best not to show how impressed he was. Gaige jumped out from behind the crate she was hiding behind "That was AWESOME!" yelled out Gaige, Zer0 had a smiley emoticon displayed and Salvador yelled out "Suck it, B******!"

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige walked with the rest of the team toward the structure that led up to the pirate ship. Gaige would never have thought that she was going to see a pirate ship, in her life. But as they made their way with Claptrap in tow, she heard Claptrap say "Stairs! Noooooo! Minions find something to…Oooh, there are controls for this elevator at the top, get there!" That was going to be irritating, when being raised up Claptrap could be shot and well, destroyed. That wouldn't end well, she had a better idea. "Guys, if we do that, Claptrap could get shot at when coming up." Axton nodded beside her "Point taken, what you have in mind?" Gaige smiled "Deathtrap!"

Gaige flexed her fingers and Deathtrap materialized beside her. "DT, pick up Claptrap." Deathtrap did as he was told and picked up the little robot who was now complaining profusely. Axton looked at her as he understood what her plan was "Alright, everyone ready? Krieg, Tracyn take the front. Maya you and I will be after them. Gaige, you and Deathtrap keep the middle. Zer0, you're our rear guard. Move on three." Axton used fingers to count down, after which they sprinted through the structure.

Gaige sprayed at the odd bandit that slipped by the other six members of the team. She noticed that Krieg and Tracyn had a great system going, Tracyn was burning every bandit in sight, while Krieg sliced them up, she called it; Barbeque and Dice. DT was also firing his heat beam at things, though it was misfiring, his digistruct data was probably marginally corrupted by the train blast. Maya and Axton were blasting those bandits, who had either slipped by Tracyn and Krieg or were not fully dead, and Zer0 was doing what he did best, blowing up people's head before the group got there.

There were moments where he would hang back and snipe, and moments he would hang around her. She couldn't help but look at him, watching him kill was like watching an artist paint or sculpt; he made it look like an art. They soon reached the top of the structure and as if on cue, Deathtrap disappeared in a haze of digistruct light and Claptrap fell to the floor. There were several crates around and Gaige heard Axton speak in his commanding tone of voice "Everyone grab as much ammo as you can carry, this guy doesn't seem like he's going to go down without a fight. Claptrap, lead the way."

Gaige turned around and saw a vending machine, instead of dispensing candies or snacks it said "Ammo Dump" she assumed it dispensed ammunition. She saw that all the other Vault Hunters were already on the deck of the large ship, except Maya who stood looking at her "Need something Gaige?" she shook her head "No thanks, Maya. I think I have enough ammo for now." Maya smiled and motioned for her to follow.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 stood next to Axton and Tracyn, he looked around the deck of the ship, it looked like a good place to fight, there was plenty of cover, behind large pipes, but those vents looked dangerous. In fact they looked like they might spew out fire, based on their charred nature, but Zer0 would find out. Claptrap suddenly shouted out "Come on out, your Claptrap unit has returned!" As if on cue the vents that Zer0 had observed earlier spouted fire, and Captain Flynt appeared on the ship's bridge "It's our new torture dolls boys, let's turn up the heat!"

Zer0 observed that Flynt was a large man with a strange helmet that had two horns on it, in one hand he had a large belt fed machine gun, in the other a large anchor. It was a crude choice of weapons but Zer0 knew that they would be effective. He saw that several Marauders now moved to engage them, that was going to prove to be problematic. To add to their list of problems Claptrap ran in "Hah, Flynt, you stand no chance against my minions. Minions, follow your master into glorious battle! Chaaarge!"

Zer0 heard Axton over his ECHO "Zer0, keep them off Claptrap!" Zer0 sighed, this was going to be interesting, to say the least. He looked through his scope to see Tracyn and Axton firing at Flynt who kept advancing on them, while Maya and Krieg kept the Marauders busy. Zer0 found a Marauder pursuing Claptrap and shot his head off. "Sucker." he said to himself. Just then Gaige appeared next to him and crouched behind the pipe, next to him. He just noticed that a bandit around five feet away dropped to the deck, his chest a mushy red mess. "You're welcome. You can thank me later" she said. Zer0 smiled, she was getting better. But was this something to celebrate, the loss of her innocence?

The two of them moved forward to engage another group of pirates, who were attempting to flank Maya and Krieg, and another who were attempting to blow Claptrap into smithereens. In Claptrap's defence he was running around, thereby making it harder for them to shoot him. Zer0 and Gaige kept pressure on both groups; he only hoped that Axton and Tracyn were handling Flynt. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a fire bursting from one of the vents, and what looked like Axton's turret get fried and sputter. Why would Axton deploy his turret behind him, unless…Zer0 quickly looked behind him to see Captain Flynt behind him, he stood with his anchor raised over his head at Gaige.

Zer0 then did something that he never expected that he would do, he jumped in front of Gaige, his Katana drawn. Zer0 watched as Flynt brought the anchor up catching him in the chest, sending him flying. Zer0 knew that his DNA was not in the New-U system yet, this would be it. The last thought that went through Zer0's head before he hit a pipe and blacked out was; at least she's safe.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

As he finished off the last of the two groups of Marauders sent after them, Tracyn noticed that Flynt was nowhere to be seen. He turned at Axton "Where's Flynt, did the others get him?" Amidst firing at another Marauder Axton looked at Tracyn then at his feet "You might want to see this" Tracyn looked at what Axton was pointing at, he saw Zer0 drop his sniper rifle and draw his Katana, and step in front of Gaige, who hadn't noticed that Flynt was behind them. That was why Axton deployed his turret behind them; he was trying to get Flynt's attention.

Tracyn knew that Flynt stood no chance as he took a swipe at Zer0, but then the unexpected happened; the anchor connected with Zer0 sending him flying. Tracyn heard Gaige scream, Flynt raised his hammer again but never brought it down. Tracyn fired at Flynt, getting his attention. But that wasn't his objective, he was filled with rage.

Tracyn held his Westar M5 in one hand and charged at Flynt, firing at him the entire way. Six blaster bolts later, Flynt's already damaged shield failed. Tracyn continued to fire at him, melting sections of his armor. Tracyn then activated his flamethrower, setting Flynt alight. Flynt screamed back at Tracyn "You think you're the master of fire, grinder?" Tracyn answered with a stab to Flynt's knee, dropping him to his other knee. Tracyn then ended his life with a stab to the neck with his vibroblade "Good riddance…" he muttered.

The other Vault Hunters were already assembled around him "YOU LOOKED INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS, AND ATE IT ALL!" yelled the psycho, who joined them earlier. Tracyn just looked at him, and walked over to where Zer0's body lay, motionless. Maya and Gaige sat next to him, Gaige was weeping and Maya was moving her hand, which was glowing over his unmoving body. From behind Axton put one hand on Tracyn's shoulder, the other holding his turret which was surprisingly intact.

He walked closer to Maya "Maya, is he…how is he doing?" Maya paused for a moment "He's pretty badly hurt, I gave him an insta health, he should be fine. His arm is broken though, I can't seem to help that; it won't begin healing. I also noticed, he had four fingers what does that even mean." The last part caught Tracyn's attention, four fingers? He knew what that meant, Zer0 had a cybernetic limb. "Maya, get his glove off" Tracyn commanded, as she did so she let out a "Whoa…" indeed Zer0 had a metallic hand, with four metallic fingers. Just then Zer0 got up to a sitting position, his other hand grabbing Maya's.

Gaige screamed "You're alive!" and hugged him. Zer0 just put his hand on his shoulder and comforted her. Axton, Salvador and Krieg walked up toward the group. Axton and Salvador had smiles of relief on their faces. "Amigo, welcome back!" called out Salvador for Zer0 to say, again this time not in Haiku "Yeah, thank you for the concern." Salvador went up and hugged him "Of course, who else will be my robot?" Zer0 displayed a smiley face.

Tracyn was ecstatic, he feared losing another brother, and now he didn't have to. Axton saw Claptrap come up behind the group "Minions, don't you want to plunder and loot the ship?" The team suddenly got up and began searching the ship, even Zer0 managed to struggle to his feet. Tracyn walked along with Zer0 as he entered a room filled with chests that Claptrap just opened. Axton opened the chest and Tracyn watched Zer0 display a frown emoticon as he found no sniper rifles, but then a smiley as he picked a Jakobs revolver.

Before long the Vault Hunters were on Claptrap's ship, and sailing away. On the deck Maya was bragging about a fire elemental pistol to Axton, who claimed that elemental weapons were for people who couldn't shoot. This resulted in him being suspended in a phaselock. Tracyn just shook his head, and removed his helmet. He decided that he would head below decks to check on Zer0 and Gaige.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige looked over the shotgun in her hand, it was a regular one no element or anything. Sal had found it and given it to her, something about it being able to blow people into pink mist. She couldn't help but feel that what happened to Zer0 was partially her fault; after all he stepped in front of her to protect her. She knew that she liked him, but did he feel the same? What if she told him and he wasn't interested?

After all she was just the geeky engineer from Eden-5 and he was a fly super badass ninja assassin, what would they even talk about? Gaige looked back at Zer0; they were in one of the lower "decks" of Claptrap's ship, if it could even be called that. "Is here fine Gaige?" asked Zer0 "Oh, um yeah, sure…" she awkwardly replied. He slowly began to remove his helmet, Gaige had her gaze fixed on him.

The helmet slid off with a hiss, as it depressurised, that was when she saw his face and had the shock of her life. He was young, not much older than twenty five, with black windswept hair, hazel brown eyes and golden coloured skin. She had no idea that he looked this good under the helmet. He noticed her looking and looked away. He then began to remove the top portion of his armor, as he did so Gaige could see that both of his arms from elbow down were mechanical, she opened her mouth to say something but then thought against it.

Had he lost both arms, no, he replaced them, his human arms, just like she had. Zer0 noticed her looking and said "Can't afford to…Be held back. By…" he never finished because Gaige nodded in understanding. It was true, she did understand, in a way, agree maybe not. She sat down next to him; his forearm was sparking, and had jagged metal sticking from where the anchor struck it. She cut out the bits of metal and looked inside; some of the servo motors were damaged, but nothing too major; Zer0 even had spares. She began silently working, which continued without event, until she had to reach over him to get her screwdriver.

She paused for a moment then awkwardly reached over him, brushing his abdomen as she retrieved it, causing him to squirm a bit "I'm sorry" she managed to say, "Cold" was all he replied. As she began re attach the screws of the newly repaired servo, she decided to ask a completely random question to alleviate the awkward silence that had descended on the room "So, the deadly assassin is upset by a little cold?" Zer0 smiled "I am upset by sharp changed in temperature, but yes, I am." and he then gave a small chuckle, which prompted Gaige to giggle in response. Gaige then, maybe purposely reached back over Zer0 and proceeded to replace the screwdriver on his other side, which caused him to chuckle again. At that time Tracyn walked into the room "Hey guys, I thought I would come to check…Oh, never mind."

**So yeah, that's Chapter 7. Review on whether I got Krieg right, whether you guys liked what happened and your general opinion, I made this chapter a little different. You guys also did not answer my last time's question, which was what did Tracyn cross train as. **

**Till next time…**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 felt slightly embarrassed, being found by his friend in the boats hold, bare-chested and without his helmet with Gaige. Sure, Gaige was just repairing his arm, but was that what Tracyn would see? He quickly jumped to his feet and ran after Tracyn, he needed to sort out what his friend thought was happening "No Tracyn, wait. Do not worry, nothing is going on." He had reached the beginning of the stairs when Tracyn who was half way up stopped and turned around. His helmet was off, so he could see the upset expression on his face.

"I _do _worry, that _is _the problem. Zer0, that girl clearly likes you! How can you not see it?" Zer0 frowned; he did not think so "What makes you so sure?" Tracyn put his hand on his forehead "I spent most of my life with people who shared the same face as I did; I learnt to understand subtle changes, in stance, in facial expression. I can see it, every time she's around you, she's happier, she smiles." Zer0 turned around "Gaige…Is this true?" Gaige stood awkwardly fidgeting with the edge of her skirt "Um…Wow this is awkward. Uh, yes I guess so?"

Zer0 sighed "I am very bad at this, why did you not tell me?" Gaige looked uncomfortable "Uh, I don't know! You're a badass assassin, you probably get asked out by girls who look ten times better than me! I'm just the geeky engineer from Eden-5 who you end up babysitting." Was that what she thought? He knew he was an assassin, but just like her, he had those problems. He was never accepted, in school when he was younger, in society now. He also never expected her to have come here with combat skills, and after he heard her story, Pandora was her best choice to run to, she didn't deserve this.

His thought process was interrupted by the sound of Tracyn's voice "While I would love to see if Axton and Maya's reaction to seeing your face will be the same as mine, I believe you won't. You might want to get your armor back on." Zer0 reached for his suit, he turned to Gaige "We'll continue this later; I um mean that in a non-hostile way." Gaige smiled "Hurry up, I think I hear Axton." He fastened the clasps and quickly put on his helmet.

Just then Axton and Maya descended the stairs "Jeez Maya, you didn't have to drop me into the water!" Maya huffed "I could have left you there! At least I got Sal to fish you out!" Axton protested "Yeah, but you know how long that took?" Maya shook her head "Quit your bellyaching Commando!" Axton muttered "Unbelievable!" He reached where Zer0 and Tracyn were standing and Gaige was packing up her tools.

"Zer0, you feeling any better?" Zer0 nodded "Yes." In truth he was still dealing with what had just happened. Axton spoke again "Well, we're about to hit the shore. Grab your gear." Zer0 nodded. He picked up his rifle and slung it across his back. Soon the boat hit the shore with a loud thud leaving Claptrap calling out over the echo "Sorry Minions, I forgot to slow down!" The team got off the boat and onto the ice around it. Zer0 surveyed the area; in front of the boat was a New-U station.

Axton walked in front of it "Huh, would you look at that!" Zer0 watched as he tried his default credentials that he obviously created when first arriving, it didn't work. They would need to re-register. Axton did so and then guided Maya through the process. Salvador though a local claimed that he wasn't registered and did so. He went on about how Vault Hunting is good for his health, now that he can afford to use the New-U stations. Zer0 walked Tracyn and Gaige through the process after registering himself. Zer0 wondered how that worked when Hyperion controlled the New-U system, why would Handsome Jack let them use it? Zer0 decided not to think about it, maybe it was just his mistake that ended up being in their favour.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige was thinking about what had happened on the boat. She knew she liked Zer0, but she never expected things to turn out like this. She was hoping to tell him later, maybe when they were all safe in Sanctuary, not like this. They kept walking until they heard a rocket explode, destroying a bridge not too far from them then they heard a voice call out over the ECHO, the sender was a Corporal Reiss "Sanctuary is off limits, you bloodshots can stay in your hole!." Gaige wondered if he was referring to them but then she heard another voice call out "I SEE YOU!" then silence.

Axton ordered the team forward and they reached where the bridge had fallen, Axton and Tracyn were examining the wreckage, discussing the power of the weapon needed to destroy it. The same Corporal Reiss then continued "Awesome" he seemingly randomly commented then continuing again "Why don't you boys run back to your camp." The bandit then responded "Yeah, good idea we'll just head back to our –DIE!" That wasn't going to end well for that Reiss guy Gaige thought.

Then Angel's voice spoke in her earpiece "Pandora is a violent and dangerous place. Sanctuary is, slightly less so. You'll need a car to get to the city gate – get to the Catch-a-ride." They began to climb up the slope, when several Bullymongs confronted them. Gaige pulled out her shotgun, firing it at the one nearest to her, it dropped down, she watched as Zer0 ran up to it and finished it off with a Jakobs revolver, making its head explode.

Gaige heard Salvador call out "Like the shotgun, niña?" Gaige nodded "Thanks, Sal!" They continued up toward the catch a ride station which was in front of a large bandit camp. The camp had a giant fish head for its entrance, which Gaige thought was very weird. Axton reached out and hit a button on the interface and suddenly a male voice with a thick redneck accent yelled out "Whoa, unauthorized user up in my grill! You trying to hack my catch a ride, uncool bro, uncool."

Angel then spoke over their ECHOs "Dammit, uh I mean darn it. A man named Scooter runs these stations. He may be short a few chromosomes but he's a savant when it comes to vehicles. He's locked the station to prevent bandits from using it. There should be a Hyperion network uplink module in that bandit camp, if you connect it, I can hack it for you."

Axton turned to the other "Alright team, we move in and grab that move in and-" he never finished his sentence because Gaige interrupted him "Axton, I can do this. I can hack into the station." Axton looked at her, unsure, but then Zer0 spoke "I vouch for Gaige." Tracyn agreed "As do I, she has Data's pad, if she knows how to use it, I'm sure it'll do the trick." Axton spoke again "Do you know how to use it Gaige?" Gaige nodded, while the others were resting in Hammerlock's hut she was figuring out how to use it before she went to help Tracyn. In reality it wasn't different from her ECHO pad, which she used to modify DT's programming, and to play games.

Gaige digistructed the device from her backpack, she then switched it on, and connected it to the interface port on the station. Scooter's voice continued "You trying to hack my…" the voice stopped and Gaige spoke in triumph "Not trying, succeeding, noob!" Scooter's voice then spoke again "Authorised user accepted, enjoy your ride, there's a pimento taco, a pimentaco in the glove box." Axton smiled "Nice one Gaige!" he held out his hand, and she bumped it. Salvador then said "Amigos get the cars, I'm hungry and that pimentaco sounds good now." Axton shook his head and sighed as he digistructed two runners.

Gaige watched as he reached into one of them and pulled out the taco and threw it to Salvador who caught it and began eating it. Axton got in one runner, and moved it forward as Gaige digistructed one more. Axton spoke from his runner "Sal, you and Maya take one, Gaige and Zer0 the other Tracyn will man my turret. Um, psycho guy?" Krieg yelled some sort of obscenity Axton then continued "You grab onto the back of Maya's runner, alright?" Krieg replied with "I will stare death in the face!" before jumping on the back of the runner now occupied by Maya and Salvador.

Gaige walked up to the runner assigned to both her and Zer0, he had occupied the driver's seat and motioned for her to get into the gunner's seat. Gaige protested, she had just started Drivers Ed in school before coming, granted she wasn't very good at it, but Zer0 didn't know that. "Hey, how come you get to drive?" Zer0 displayed a "?" on his visor "You know how to drive?" Gaige tried to look confident "Yeah, I sure do." Zer0 got out of the driver's seat and Gaige sat in. She honestly barley knew how to drive a regular car, forget a light runner. She held the steering wheel awkwardly and asked "So, um where's the gas?"

Zer0 face palmed, "Gaige, you clearly/ do not know how to drive / relinquish the seat." Gaige sighed and got out of the seat and slipped into the gunner's seat, it was worth a shot. The runners went on their way, until Gaige noticed that the lead runner, Axton's runner jumped over the gap that was the bridge. Then Maya's with Krieg screaming some obscenity that she didn't entirely hear, finally Zer0 started to accelerate "Um Z, you sure you know how to do this?" Zer0 scoffed "What is the other option let you drive?" Gaige pouted, yeah, that was probably going to end badly.

Gaige and Zer0's runner accelerated toward the bridge, Gaige screamed as the runner made the jump between the two remaining portions of the bridge. As it landed on the other side Gaige let out a "THAT WAS AWESOME! Let's do that again!" Gaige couldn't tell but she was sure Zer0 was smiling under his helmet "Another time" he then said.

**Axton's Perspective**

Right as they cleared the gap, Axton heard the voice of Angel over his ECHO "Great, you made it, now get to Sanctuary. Roland will want to see the group of Vault Hunters that stared down Handsome Jack and lived." Axton gunned the car, eager to get to Sanctuary, they could then plan their revenge against Handsome Jack, and get on with their Primary objective; the Vault. It was then when he heard Handsome Jacks voice in his ECHO "Sometimes I envy you bandits- you're so- unburdened with things like intelligence, culture, morality, honour, ambition, good looks…I could go on, but I won't. But I could." Axton transmitted back "Try us!" Jack then responded with "Well um, you know what, screw you!"

The entire team of Hunters burst of laughing, Maya then ECHO'd in response "Nice one, Axton! Give it to him any way we can!" Axton smiled and continued driving the runner along the road, heading in the direction of the waypoint marked on his HUD. They drove past a flock of Rakks circling over a small hut, there were several dead bandits in front of it. Salvador then made the stupid mistake of shooting at them. Axton heard Tracyn over his ECHO "Axton, we have incoming at 6'oclock! Rakks if I'm not wrong!" Axton yelled back at Axton, already exasperated with Salvador for having shot at them. What was even going through his head? On second thought Axton did not want to even know.

Axton kept the runner on the road as the gunners of the three runners sent lead flying at the swarm of Rakks after them. Axton thought to himself "There would be less Rakk, if they had attacked a whole Hive of them." Before long, dead Rakk were falling all over, one narrowly missing Axton's head. As the last Rakk died, Axton ECHO'd Salvador "Sal, mind telling us next time you plan on doing something stupid like that?" Axton heard Salvador chuckle "Sure thing Amigo, but it won't do you any good will it?" Axton just shook his head and drove toward Sanctuary.

Before long the three runners reached a large wall, outside it several Bandits were waiting, Axton received their ECHO that was obviously directed at Sanctuary's inhabitants "Let us in grinder, we're just gonna kill every last one of ya!" For some reason they hadn't noticed or didn't care about the three runners. Tracyn ECHO'd Axton "Orders?" Axton replied coldly with "Open fire!" With that Tracyn, Salvador and Gaige opened up on the Bandits, with Zer0, Maya and him helping with the front mounted guns when they could.

Axton noticed a suicide psycho run up to his runner, only for him to have a buzz axe thrown at him. The next thing Axton knew Krieg stood next to him, and was removing his axe from the body of the psycho. Soon there was a pile of dead bandits, and Axton got out of the seat of the runner, motioning for all of them to do the same. He found an intercom of sorts and after ensuring that the other Vault Hunters were assembled around it, pushed the button.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 stood next to Gaige near the intercom, a hologram suddenly burst out from the intercom; he had the armor of the Crimson Lance PMC of the Atlas Corporation except missing a few pieces. "You're never getting into Sanctuary you bloodshot skaglicks – Oh hold up – You guys are Vault Hunters – Just a sec, Roland wanted to talk to you. Lemme Echo him." Then they all were ECHO'd by a man, Zer0's HUD told him that his name was Roland; the leader of the Crimson Raiders. He had a grey beret and wore grey fatigues, he had the look of a career soldier that had seen more than his fair share of action. "Ah, so you guys are the ones I've been hearin' all this radio chatter about. Name's Roland – used to be a Vault Hunter, like you, until I formed the Crimson Raiders. We'll catch up when I get back to Sanctuary – for now I need your help. My men tell me Corporal Reiss hasn't returned with the power core we need to keep the city's shields running. Bring Reiss back to Sanctuary and you'll have earned your place in the Raiders.

Zer0 heard Axton reply to Roland "We saw your man Reiss running from some bandits, couldn't get to him though." Roland replied "Dammit, if the bloodshots have found him then you need to get to him, quick." Zer0 then heard Angel's voice in his earpiece "Roland's contacted you? Good, we need him to help us defeat Jack." Zer0 began to become suspicious of this "Angel" she seemed to know more than she was letting on, but he let it go for now.

Zer0 gunned their runner toward the position marked on their HUD, the runner kicking snow behind it. Zer0 heard Gaige speak over his ECHO "So this is a simple one right? Rescue this Reiss guy, get the power core and save the city?" Zer0 responded quickly "Yes, Gaige. But it may not be that simple. Roland would not send us if it was." Gaige frowned "So, this isn't going to be easy?" "Zer0 sighed "No."

Zer0 brought the runner to a stop in front of what looked to be a large ribcage of what was obviously a dead animal. Axton called over the ECHO to all of them "Team, dismount, we'll continue on foot. Unless one of you has a brilliant plan to make one of the runners lose a whole lot of weight. Zer0 helped Gaige out of the turret and slipped through.

**Maya's Perspective**

Maya gunned her runner toward the little blip on her HUD that signified Reiss's last know position. She wanted to get this done as soon as possible, she was looking forward to a hot shower after all this cold, and maybe a decent hot meal, and a drink. Oh yeah, definitely a drink. That was one of the things she loved about having left the abbey, being able to choose to do what the hell she wanted to.

Maya saw a fire ahead on the road, that couldn't be good. As the runner got closer, she could make out the wreckage of a runner; Reiss's runner. The three runners stopped in various positions around the wreck. Maya jumped out of the seat with Salvador and Krieg behind her. She could hear Axton "Maya, Sal check out that wreck. See if you can find a body. Zer0, you and Gaige check our perimeter."

With that Maya looked around for a clue, namely a body. She didn't exactly like the fact that Axton was giving orders, but he was the only other person with military experience, other than Tracyn, it seemed logical. Tracyn seemed shaken up, but he was adjusting, she couldn't feel the trauma that she did when since she first met him.

Just then Salvador yelled out "Amigos! Found something!" they all ran over to where Salvador stood with Gaige and Zer0 coming in last. Salvador held something in his hand, an ECHO recorder. Axton nodded and Salvador played it, they could hear Corporal Reiss's voice delivering a desperate message "Got the power core from the Bloodshots…blew the bridge…I'm hit…Going to lose em' in the Marrowfields -" then screaming.

Maya heard Roland's voice over the ECHO "Reiss is in trouble? Dammit – we're spread thin enough as it is. Find him." Axton responded to Roland "We'll get your man back Roland. Alright team, mount up and move out." After satisfying herself that everyone was back in their runners Maya gunned her runner to where her HUD told her the Marrowfields was located. Maya didn't want to know why they were called that, she just gunned the runner, maybe they could get to Reiss in time. Maya knew that however, if what she had seen so far on Pandora was an indication of whether they could get there in time, then the answer was no.

**Axton's Perspective**

Axton and the rest of the hunters ditched the runners, which could not make it through the obstacle of some creature's ribcage that lay ahead. They however could make it through just fine on foot. As he was walking through the ribcage he head Handsome Jack's annoying voice in his earpiece "Handsome Jack here, reminding you all not to worry your pretty little heads about those earthquakes – see with every tremor, my drills get closer to the Vault; which means safety, order and peace for us all – except you asshats in Sanctuary."

Tracyn, walked at the head of the group with Axton, he kept checking his sensors for movement. He saw Axton turn his head toward him "Listen Tracyn, I know I keep taking the lead here, and I know that the others don't seem to mind cause you know Military service and all, but…I know you have seen your fair share of service as well, if you want to you know, take over at any point, in case I'm…" Tracyn interrupted "You're doing fine Axton, I know what you mean, but I'm not sure I'm ready to return to the realities of command yet, losing my team, was bad enough, I don't want to lose another. Besides I have never led anyone other than a clone trooper in combat, so…"

Axton smiled weakly, he understood Tracyn's point, but the death of his squad, form what Axton could understand was not on his hands and it certainly require Tracyn to keep on blaming himself. But Axton would talk about that later "So, that's what your unit is called?" Tracyn shook his head "No, that's what the regular infantry is called, I am an ARC Trooper," he said, pausing as he finished his sentence. Axton nodded "So, special forces right?" Tracyn nodded

As they progressed Axton heard Corporal Reiss's voice in his earpiece "Goddammed Bloodshots, there's too many of 'em! If anyone can hear me, I need help!" Axton opened a line to Reiss" Corporal, hang tight we're on our way!" he knew that Reiss would take any help he could get and not care who Axton was, yet. Axton only hoped they could get there in time.

**Corporal Reiss's Perspective**

Reiss fired his carbine at the approaching horde of Bloodshot bandits. He managed to nail a Marauder with a headshot, "One down, a million to go!" thought Reiss to himself. He stopped firing in bursts and went full auto spraying approaching psychos with gunfire, killing several of them, but that didn't thin the approaching horde of bandits.

Reiss noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to face it, only to feel a sharp pain on the back of his head causing him to drop to the ground. Reiss looked up to see a large figure standing over him, he had the skull of some animal on his head and he raised a buzz axe high over his head. Reiss closed his eyes and waited for the end.

**That's it guys, for now. As always if I went wrong tell me, if I did something right tell me. Anything in particular you would like to see, well tell me. If I'm getting too philosophical about the ethics of a clone army again tell me. Surprises around the corner so stay tuned. **

**Until next time..**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 and the rest of the Vault Hunters sprinted toward the location from which Reiss transmitted from, with Zer0, Axton and Krieg at the head. As they rounded the side of a hill saw several psychos beating Reiss up, with a Badass Psycho patrolling. Zer0 held his hand up motioning for the others to stop "Warning, Badass." Axton stopped, Zer0 saw him frown as he obviously struggled to think of a plan, at that moment however, Krieg jumped out "I will eat his nephews!"

Zer0 heard Axton yell "Krieg no, come back, we need a plan!" Zer0 turned to Axton shrugged and drew his Katana; Axton spoke "Aww what the hell!" also running in along with Zer0. Zer0 sliced the heads off two Psychos with ease, he saw Axton smack an oncoming psycho to the ground and shove the barrel of his Assault Rifle in his face and fire. Krieg was engaging the Badass psycho in close quarters combat with is buzz axe.

Krieg swiped at the other psycho and missed, the psycho lifted his axe and brought it down, just grazing Krieg's arm. Krieg yelled out "Salt the wound!" Zer0 expertly threw one of his Kunai at the psycho which caught him in the shoulder, causing him to drop his Buzz axe. Krieg took advantage of the opportunity and slashed the head of the psycho right off. He held his buzz axe proudly in the air; he walked over to Zer0 where he stood for awkwardly in front of him for the next moment or so.

Zer0 opened his mouth to say something before Krieg finally spoke "Krieg thanks robot man." So, that was his name, though Zer0. He saw that Axton realised the same thing as he put his hand on his head, "So that's your name, well, good job Krieg!" Krieg responded with "I enjoy the slaughter of the lambs!" Zer0 shrugged, close enough.

He saw Axton standing over Reiss, Reiss lay in the snow, hardly moving, Zer0 knew it was over. Reiss started to speak "Vault Hunters? I didn't think I rated that much of a rescue. One of the psychos ran off with the power core. Without it Sanctuary will be defenceless. " Axton turned around "Hang in there Corporal, Maya get over here, now!" Zer0 saw Maya run over to where Reiss lay, she began moving her hand over his prone form, her hand glowing the whole time.

She looked up to Axton with a sad expression "I'm sorry Axton…" Reiss spoke again "Get that core back to Sanctuary. I'm just gonna take a nap, wake me up when I'm not on Pandora anymore." Axton bowed his head. Just then Roland ECHO'd the team "Reiss is dead? He was one of the first Crimson Lancemen I recruited into the Raiders. Get the power core back, while you're at it kill some bandits. It's what Reiss would have wanted."

Axton turned and headed off toward the area marker, he put a new magazine into his assault rifle before cocking it. Zer0 followed at a distance, Axton would want some space. He saw Gaige walking up behind him "So, we're just leaving him here? Can't we get him back to Sanctuary? Help him?" Zer0 sighed, there was no way she thought he was alive was there? She had to know he was dead, no, just because this planet was cruel and unforgiving, doesn't mean she had to lose all her innocence because of it, he would have to try to teach her to survive, and he would keep her safe.

**Gaige's Perspective**

They soon came upon a large bandit encampment, as they did a new objective flashed onto their HUDS. Kill twenty bandits, it said. From beside him Gaige spoke up, irritation in her voice "Twenty bandits? Where are we going to find, oh, never mind." she said as she saw the huge amount of bandits in the camp ahead of them.

Zer0 shouldered his sniper rifle, he digistructed another one and gave it to Gaige, she refused it. "I can't shoot anything with that thing." Zer0 interrupted "And so you will learn / to shoot the head off a Rakk/ It is safer here" Gaige just smiled "I'll be fine, both you and DT have my back!" she jumped off just managing to hear Axton yell "Not again!"

Gaige landed on her feet and quickly summoned Deathtrap, the bandits soon charged her and she began firing, she fired her shotgun point blank range into a psycho, behind her Deathtrap slashed at psychos before running after a nomad. Gaige screamed after him "That's what ya get for messing with a girl and her bot!" Gaige noticed out of the corner of her eye that someone stood next to her; Tracyn. "Got your back kid," he added.

Gaige felt at ease after she knew that the large trooper had her back melting the faces of bandits with his blaster rifle. She fired at a nomad bringing him to his knees before blasting him to bits; she then turned blasting another psycho, before blasting a third she yelled out "I'm feeling awesomer!" She noticed that the volume of gunfire had significantly dropped she just kept shooting the bandits, who were now almost fleeing.

As the last psycho fled, jumping over the edge of a cliff rather than face her, she then said "Ugh, what was I thinking?" Zer0 came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder "You did good Gaige, but I am not sure that's a good thing." Gaige smiled weakly "Sure it is; now you don't have to teach me to snipe!"

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 gave a small laugh, he guessed he didn't, but while that was true, she was slowly beginning to lose what innocence she came with, maybe she thought that she needed to prove herself to them, but that was not true, not to him at least. Roland contacted them, just as they were sure that the camp had no more Bandit occupants "The Resistance lost a good man today, but I'm sure he would have been happy to know how quickly you wiped out those Bloodshots."

He turned around at the sound of Salvador's voice "Amigo's! Found the power core!" Axton turned toward him "Good, let's head back to Sanctuary." Roland's voice could be heard in everyone's ECHOs "You found the power core, great! Jack won't destroy Sanctuary today at least. Get back to the city. We'll meet up once I get there. Welcome to the Crimson Raid – Ah Dammit – I'm being attacked. I'll see " The transmission was then cut off. Axton looked to the others "We should hurry, Roland may be in trouble…" Zer0 turned around with Gaige in tow as they jogged back toward where they left their runners.

As they runner sped along what was left of the road Zer0 sighed as he heard Handsome Jack's voice in his ECHO "This is a message to Sanctuary, the last stronghold of the resistance. Pandora as you know it – the chaos, the bandits, that time has passed. If you let it this can be an era of order – of peace! Just turn yourselves in and I promise your deaths will be quick." As Jack finished talking Zer0 stopped the runner outside Sanctuary's gate. Unfortunately for them he started again "You like my speech? I was lying about the last part by the way. I'm gonna spend a long time torturing you bandit scum to death. And I'll enjoy it even more because – oh – I shouldn't say more. I've got a little secret that I uh, you know what? You don't need to hear it – it'll probably just confuse ya. Ciao!"

Zer0 suddenly turned to his right on hearing Gaige's voice, she was shouting at someone "F*** you Jack, I won't join you! You try to kill me and then you're all like oh Gaige join me! Screw off, tool!" Zer0 looked at her "Gaige…What's going on?" Gaige looked down, "Nothing, Handsome Bastard tried to buy me off, I told him to-" Zer0 interrupted her "I believe the whole of Sanctuary heard what you told him to do." Gaige blushed. Zer0 saw Axton walk forward and key the intercom.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige jumped out of the runner's gunner seat. Just as Handsome Jack's last transmission finished, she heard his voice over her ECHO "Gaige, the Mechromancer. I have a proposition for you, have you seen your bounty poster? Well, I can make it all go away, I just want you to leave you idiot Bandit friends and come work for me. You'll have the best Hyperion has to offer, well paid and the chance to lead a team of Hyperion's brightest engineers. Whaddya say?" Gaige clenched her fist, this a****** tried to kill her several times, placed a bounty on her head, threatened her with a slow death and almost got her friends killed, and now he wanted her to join him, was he off his f****** head?

Gaige delivered her response "F*** you Jack, I won't join you! You try to kill me and then you're all like oh Gaige join me! Screw off, tool!" Jack growled in her earpiece "You'll regret this, b****!" Gaige wanted to kill Jack even more now. Gaige and the other Vault Hunters turned toward the intercom which Axton had just activated the ghostly holo projected figure of Lt. Davis showed up "Roland is that you?! Oh it's the Vault Hunters – get in quick! Roland's ECHO communicator just went dead. We need your help!" The large reinforced gates to Sanctuary opened and the Vault Hunters walked on the long walkway that extended toward Sanctuary.

Handsome Jack plagued them with is voice again "Made it to Banditville, huh? It'll be nice to see a friendly face when I'm burning that place to the ground. Oh and I've decided that I will tell you my secret later on, once you guys have earned it." Axton pulled out the Power Core and walked up to Lieutenant Davis "Here ya go LT, power core." Davis looked shocked, but Gaige couldn't be sure, after all he was wearing a helmet "You're the ones Commander Roland was talkin' about, the ones who faced Jack and lived. Look, we need your help, but first thing's first plug that power core into the shield generator."

Gaige watched as Axton turned toward her "Gaige, go ahead, I don't want to screw anything up." Gaige took the power core from Axton, it was not excessively heavy but it wasn't exactly light. She walked up to where the old power core was. Gaige hit the release button, and with a hiss the old core popped out. She then placed the new core in, which powered up with a hum. She heard Davis say from behind her "Good that ought to last us a day or two. Roland was supposed to bring us some Intel on how to stop Jack. With him missing, we really need your help. Talk to Private Jessup at the gate, he'll let you into the city. JESSUP, stand up straight, we got Vault Hunters headed your way!"

Gaige walked with the rest of the Vault Hunters toward the main city gate until suddenly Davis shouted "Blitz! Look alive everybody!" As he saw the Vault Hunters approached the gate, he continued "Hyperion moonshot blitz. Without that fresh core that you brought, those lunar mortars would have punched right through the shield. Gaige could see the mortar shots flying downward from the seemingly omnipresent Hyperion moon base impact harmlessly on the shield.

Jessup then hit a button which lowered the gate producing a low pitched hydraulic whine. "Commander Roland never got back from his secret reconnaissance mission. He left very specific orders for this contingency which you can help carry out. Go meet with the town mechanic. At that moment they heard the all too familiar voice of the Guardian Angel over their ECHO units "Crap. I uh, mean darn. Roland needs your help – without you, the Crimson Raiders don't stand a chance against Jack. Please find out where Roland's gone."

The first sight that the Vault Hunters were met with when they stepped into the city was a large circular paved area, and in front of that some sort of Garage door. The marker on Gaige's HUD said that was where the Town's mechanic was going to be, so she walked in that direction. Axton however walked in another direction, toward a large neon sign that read "Moxxi's" . Maya called after him "Axton where are you going, the mechanic is this way!" Axton gave her a look "Maya, after all this I need a drink, and honestly I have no idea why nobody else wants one." Salvador looked down, then at the rest of the Vault Hunters "Actually Amigos, I was hoping to have one too."

Maya then shrugged "Sure why the hell not?" and followed Axton and Salvador, with Tracyn and Krieg in tow. Gaige guessed that Tracyn had probably drunk before, while Krieg, she didn't want to know what he drunk. She heard someone clearing their throat and turned around, there was Zer0 standing behind her holding his arms behind his back "Gaige, would you like to/ perhaps, share a meal with me? / I will pay for it." Gaige smiled "You mean like a date, you did not seriously make a Haiku about asking me out on a date! You're so dorky!" Zer0 looked around uneasily, then back at her "I'm sorry, did I do this wrong?" Gaige reached up and hugged him, throwing her arms around his neck "No, it's perfect."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn, Maya, Krieg and Axton walked in through the door to Moxxi's bar. On walking in Tracyn noticed that the music was very loud, not unlike any bar on Coruscant. Axton led the group toward the counter to where the matron stood. Tracyn couldn't help but notice her, she certainly didn't lack good looks. She turned toward Axton "How ya doin sugar, name's Moxxi, I own the place. What can I get you fine Vault Hunters?" Axton looked surprised "We that obvious?" Moxxi laughed "Come on sugar; give me that much credit. We have a siren, some kinda soldier, a psycho and you Mr Dahl military guy."

Axton looked at her "And how did you know that?" Moxxi smiled "Why hon, your poster with your pretty mug on it is on the wall. All of yours are." Tracyn couldn't help but notice that she said "all of yours" was she referring to him as well? He walked up the space on the wall which Moxxi gestured to indeed there was a poster with him on it. It wasn't just him there was one for Axton, Maya, Salvador, Zer0 and even Gaige.

Gaige's had "Creation of Unauthorized Technology" and strangely "Excessive Adorability" whatever that was supposed to mean. For the life of him Tracyn could not understand how the latter or even the former was a crime, from what Gaige told him, it wasn't her fault, although he doubted she would have got a fair trial had she turned herself in, he would have to remind her about that.

Axton's had War Crimes and Desertion, Tracyn could understand why that would be a problem, again however in all his dealings with Axton he never found the man capable of what he was accused of. Of course he was a good soldier, but that surely did not mean always following orders, even he knew to question his orders and that was something the Kaminoans tried to stamp out of him and the rest of the Alpha ARCs.

Maya's simply said "Siren" was that a crime? How could she help what abilities she was born with, it was like outlawing Jedi from being, well Jedi. That was madness, whoever placed the bounty, and probably Hyperion knew that people would attempt to claim the bounty regardless of the charges but simply due to the large amount of money involved.

Salvador had a large amount of crimes listed, and Tracyn guessed that some of them were most probably correct, but after seeing the natives of this planet, he guessed that this was mild compared to most of them, and as along as Salvador didn't display any of these tendencies with them, he was okay.

Zer0's was simple; Political Assassination. Tracyn had no problems with this, although other than Salvador, he was probably the only real "criminal". The Republic used Bounty Hunters and their own men to carry out hits against Separatist leaders all the time, himself included. Tracyn knew that he was not a simple contract killer, but an assassin, only available to high profile clients, such as governments, he saw almost no difference in what he sometimes did, and what Zer0 did, the only difference being his "employer" was always the Republic and Zer0's changed.

Krieg's was another story, it read "Property of Hyperion" what was that supposed to mean. Tracyn was no stranger to slavery, he had seen numerous species kept as slaves, even helped General Skywalker and Kenobi clear out Zygerian slavers on the Torguta colony of Kiros. But maybe he could ask…No that would not work, he would not be able to get through to Krieg, and maybe all they would get out of him was his name.

When he finally looked at his, he noticed that it was a superimposed image of him on the height chart, probably taken at the Train Station. What shocked him was his listed crimes, it read "Attempted Invasion of Pandora, Unsanctioned attack on Hyperion Forces and Destruction of Hyperion Supply Train" He was furious, to say the least. He had committed no actual crime, so Jack, obviously had come up with the most ridiculous crimes, including blaming him for the train blast that he used to try to kill the Vault Hunters. He also noticed that his bounty was just under Gaige and Maya's at 700,000,000,000.00 and over everyone else's.

As he came to he realised he had his fist to the wall, leaving a serious of cracks around it. He looked around and noticed that several of the bar patrons were now looking at him, he slowly removed his fist from the wall and walked over to where the others sat near the bar. Moxxi looked at him as he came over "Don't worry about it sugar, no one cares about that here. I do care about the wall though, but not enough to ask you to pay." Tracyn managed to let out a weak "Thanks."

Axton saw him slowly and asked him "Saw your poster? Saw the rest of ours?" Tracyn looked up "Yeah, for what it's worth I don't care what they said, about any of you. Krieg's and Gaige are ridiculous though." Axton and Maya laughed, Axton then answered "Excessive Adorability? I know right, what the hell was that all about?" Tracyn nodded and slowly removed his helmet "I heard from Zer0 that clones aren't exactly new in this Galaxy…" Axton nodded "That's right; the Atlas Corporation used them as part of a group of all female assassins. What did Jack claim you did?" Tracyn looked down "Attempted Invasion of Pandora and Destruction of Hyperion Supply Train." Axton spat "Bastard, we'll kill him, not yet, but he's going to get what's coming to him."

"Anyways let's drink to, well, being alive! Moxxi, four Vodka shots!" the bar tender came around with four shot glasses Axton passed one to Tracyn and looked at each one of them "Now, I only assume that you guys can keep your alcohol in, cause I don't plan on being sober enough to find out!" and with that he downed the shot. Salvador followed suit, then Maya and then Tracyn as he hesitantly lifted his glass. He had drunk before but not often.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 walked with Gaige toward the bar in Sanctuary, the bar had a large neon sign with the word "Moxxi's" on it. Zer0 guessed that this was the name of the bar's matron. He walked in, Gaige seemed excited. He extended his hand, which she grabbed and they stepped in through the entrance. Zer0 heard Gaige giggling; in fear that he had done something wrong he looked at her. She was pointing at the bar where Axton, Maya, Tracyn, Salvador and Krieg sat; Salvador and Axton had several small glasses in front of them, filled with some sort of liquid. Maya sat next to them screaming "Go, go, go, go" repeatedly. Even Tracyn sat by with a large smile on his face, Zer0 was glad that his friend was enjoying himself. He also noticed that Krieg sat absolutely still, he wondered why; he secretly hoped that they hadn't given him any alcohol.

Zer0 and Gaige found a relatively isolated booth to sit in and sat down. Zer0 found himself staring into Gaige's green eyes, until he was interrupted by a female voice with a southern accent "Ain't you two the cutest couple, what can I get you." Zer0 shook his head "What do you have to / Eat in this establishment / something appreciable" Moxxi smiled "Well Hon, I have a lot, but the only thing 'appreciable' would be my pizza, so one pepperoni pizza I guess?" he looked to Gaige who answered "YESSS, the largest one you can get! I had no idea I would find pizza here!" Moxxi smiled "The one and only pizza joint on Pandora! I'll go and get your pizza."

Gaige spoke to him "So, when you said we'll talk about you and I later, did you mean now?" Zer0 nodded "Yes, I did. Gaige, I know you won't believe me when I say this, but this is the first time I am doing this. I am exactly like you, no friends. I came to Pandora seeking a challenge, and I found it in friendship with the others, but the greatest is a relationship with you." Gaige smiled again "You know Z, it's not every day that I get asked out by a boy, let alone a bad ass Haiku speaking assassin like you. You're looking at the only girl who didn't have a date at the Eden-5 junior prom. I just…you know…Gosh this is harder than that new raid boss on SBtNR. What I mean is Zer0, you're a great guy, and I can only wish that this isn't you letting me down nicely." Zer0 looked at her "No Gaige, it isn't. You are an amazing girl, and over the time that I have come to know you I have found that we have a lot in common, including interests. I too play Star Battles the New Republic, I assume that we have a lot more common interests than that though.

Gaige had an expression of complete shock "OMG, I had no idea! I didn't think that you would be the video games kinda guy, let me guess you play a spy, no a dark warrior, no maybe you always wanted to be a soldier?" Zer0 laughed "Well, you go first, and then I'll tell you." Zer0 was interrupted by the arrival of the pizza and Mad Moxxi "Well here you go sugars, one large peperoni pizza!"

Gaige wasted no time in diving into the pizza she grabbed a slice and began eating. Zer0 watched as the girl ate through her second slice, then she looked up at him "Why aren't you eating, oh right. You've got a case of visor where your mouth is supposed to be. Zer0, why don't you take it off." Take his helmet off amidst all these people that he didn't know? No, they were probably too drunk to notice him, plus it would make Gaige feel better.

He reached toward the visor release button on his helmet and pressed it, with a hiss that was largely inaudible over the music, his visor popped open. Zer0 smiled, really

This time, not using an emoticon and reached for a slice. It was not what he would normally eat, but it would make Gaige happy and so he did so. He looked into Gaige's eyes as they shared another moment that is until Tracyn's gruff voice ruined the entire moment, with Gaige awkwardly looking away. Tracyn spoke up "Listen you two, I need your help." Zer0 gave him a "What is it now, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" look. Tracyn nodded his head toward the bar, where Maya, Axton and Salvador were passed out.

Gaige's jaw dropped "How much did they drink?" Tracyn nodded slowly "A lot…" Zer0 noticed that he was slurring some of his words; he wasn't exactly completely sober either. "Tracyn, are you alright?" Tracyn nodded shaking himself as he did so "Yeah, let's just say Jango was as at home at a bar as he was at a battlefield." Zer0 cocked his head "Who?" Tracyn looked at him incredulously like he said the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard "Jango Fett, prime clone…Never mind, I'll tell you some other time, now just help me get them out of here." Zer0 got up from the table reluctantly he left some cash on the table, enough to pay for the pizza.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn walked up to the bar with Zer0 and Gaige in tow, Krieg sat on the bar stool rather patiently, and oddly enough silently, Tracyn found that a tad bit frightening. He walked over and saw Axton, Maya and Salvador all passed out on the counter. Moxxi turned to him "And it ain't even closing time yet, but y'all came in here a while back, so I ain't surprised." Tracyn looked at the three passed out Vault Hunters, Axton and Maya would be easier to move than Salvador, and Maya would be a lot lighter than Axton, Krieg could do the heavy lifting. He looked at Krieg "Krieg, pick up Axton, and follow me." Krieg responded with "KRIEG PICKS UP SOLDIER FOR TIN MAN."

Tracyn lifted Maya up gently under her arms then over his shoulder, he knew she would feel that in the morning, his pauldron wasn't the most comfortable thing to be lying on. He made his way to where his HUD said the Crimson Raiders HQ was, outside there was a guard. He looked up and Tracyn and the others and yawned "Hey Vault Hunters, its kinda late isn't it. Anyways, Commander Roland left you guys this apartment, you know in case you guys needed a place to stay." He extended his hand; he had a key card in it.

Tracyn grabbed the card from him, he looked to his right and he could see an entrance around the side of the building. He looked at the guard "Thanks, as you were." The guard stood up straighter and Tracyn walked away. He reached the door and flashed the card in front of a scanner, the door beeped and then opened. Inside there was a small elevator lobby, he stepped inside and held the door open for the others to walk in with his free hand. There was only one button so he hit that and the elevator whined and moved upward.

The door to the apartment was also locked and Tracyn flashed the card to open the door again. He stepped inside and was met with a large living room. There were several couches, a large screen, a carpet on the floor, it wasn't the most luxurious apartment Tracyn had seen, but it was far better than Arca Company barracks.

There were several rooms, as if on cue Gaige suddenly yelled "I call that room!" and she ran into the room on Tracyn's left closing the door behind her. Zer0 looked at another "I see a room of choice…" Tracyn turned to him and snapped "Don't you leave me too!" Zer0 turned and looked at him "Fine, but that is my room." Tracyn teased him for his seemingly childish behaviour "Hanging around Gaige much?" Zer0 displayed a smiley face and opened the door to one of the rooms. Tracyn followed him in.

The room had a large bed, bedside table, couch and its own bathroom, far better than what he was used to, he hoped his would be similar. He placed Maya as gently as possible onto the bed. He walked out of the room after he ensured that she was fine. He watched for a moment as the blue haired siren lay on the bed breathing slowly, he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

He saw Zer0 and Krieg walking out of another room, obviously having put Axton in a bed Tracyn turned to them "Now to get Salvador…" just as he was talking the diminutive Truxican walked through the door grumbling about how they left him behind. Zer0 spoke "Sal has brought himself/ No need to go pick him up/ Now, I'm going to bed." Implying that if Tracy had any more requests he wanted no part in them.

**So that's it, just wondering, did no one like chapter 8? And does no one read what I write at the end? If you find that I rant, just tell me and I'll stop. Also no one answered the question that I asked, which was "What did Tracyn say he cross trained as?" So the answer to that is he cross trained as a pilot. If you can guess what that means, awesome, else, well still awesome.**

**Also a big thanks to SirRegiVonDubstep and barber477 for supporting me since the beginning. SirRegiVonDubstep, I see you are a fan of Zaige, tell me if I am doing it right.**

**Till next time…**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn looked around him, he was in a large desert, and the scene around him was a nightmare. He saw a burning wreck of a shuttle, his shuttle. On the desert floor, lay several bodies, the bodies of his men. The body belonged to Data suddenly appeared without a helmet, coughing up blood "I guess…That's what I get for being a cheeky Chaakar." He then exploded, the body belonging to Blitz turned to him now sitting in the wrecked cabin of the shuttle "it's been an honour serving with you." He said. Tracyn ran up to him, only for him to burn into ashes. Tracyn closed his eyes, when he opened them again the bodies of his men were replaced with the bodies of the other Vault Hunters, Handsome Jack's voice boomed throughout the dreamscape "Welcome to Pandora kiddos!"

Tracyn awoke in a cold sweat, panting. He looked at his bedside table at his wrist comm; it was 7:30 in the morning. Tracyn groaned, it wasn't exactly early, but he hadn't rested much in the past few days, and that nightmare didn't help him. He threw the covers off and got up. Tracyn was only dressed in the lower half of his GAR issue black bodysuit, he slipped on the top half and got making his bed. Soon his bed was made with military precision, he decided to head into the kitchen when his stomach rumbled; he was hungry.

He got up and opened the door to his room, his gear would be safe in there. He walked into the kitchen, he was glad he didn't put his armor on, he might have broken something; the kitchen wasn't exactly large. In truth Tracyn didn't know how to cook much, but he remembered Jango's friend and Cuy'val Dar training sergeant Kal Skirata had taught the recipe of Uj Cake to him once. The memories of the times they had tried to make the sticky sweet, spicy, syrupy amber coloured cake brought a tear to his eye. One thing was sure; Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner, it was great.

Tracyn looked into the pantry, while there weren't the exact fruits he used, he found ones he could substitute. He walked around the kitchen, looking for ingredients, even finding an apron which he donned; it would not be prudent to mess his bodysuit up, that would not end well. Soon Tracyn had the batter ready and in a tin in the oven and was preparing the syrup that went over it in a saucepan. He took a deep breath of the fragrant aroma coming out from the concoction in the pan.

A beeping from his wrist comm alerted him to the fact that the cake was ready. He whistled to himself as he removed the cake from the oven and placed it on a dish that he had found earlier. He then poured the syrup over the dense cake, giving it time to sink in as he got a knife to cut it. He was going to share it he thought as he walked back to the counter where he left the cake, but first he would cut himself a generous slice.

He found that his fantasizing was interrupted by a gruff, but sleepy voice "Hmm, up so early Tracyn? What is that I smell? Is that cake, did you make cake?" By now Axton was in front of the cake and was cutting himself a medium sized slice. Tracyn barely got out an answer to Axton's barrage of questions before Axton sat himself down in the living room with the slice "Um, yes and um..."

Soon the door to Maya's room opened, "You guys up already? Oh, Tracyn is that you? You look nice; maybe you should take off that armor more often. Do I smell cake?" Tracyn blushed "Um yeah, it's a specialty from where I come from." She walked over cut a small slice and placed it on a saucer and sat on the sofa opposite from Axton "Wow, this is really good!" Axton piped up "Best Hangover breakfast ever! Speaking of which how are you not feeling it?" Tracyn chuckled "Let's just say it's in my genes." Axton then teased him "Probably one of the better things you inherited…" Tracyn frowned "Hand back that cake!" Axton shook his head "It's as good as eaten."

Suddenly Salvador walked out of his room "Ai Caramba, who is making churros?" What the heck are churros? thought Tracyn. Axton sighed "They're not churros you Truxican idiot! They're something from where Tracyn comes from!" Salvador smiled "His Abuela sent him something? Abuelas are like that!" Tracyn wondered what an "Abuela" was. Axton slapped his forehead "No you idiot, he doesn't have an Abuela, besides he made it. What's it called anyways, Tracyn?" Tracy answered his question "It's called Uj Cake, it's typically enjoyed by warriors during celebrations-" Salvador cut him off "Well I'll take a slice anyway!" Salvador cut himself a rather large slice leaving only a third of the cake left.

Gaige stepped out of her room yawning, her red hair a mess "Hey guys, rough night huh?" Maya looked at her "Good Morning Gaige, yes it was, can't explain why I can't feel one side of my face, though." Tracyn smiled to himself, he knew the answer to that. Gaige walked over to where he was standing "Oh my god, is that cake! What sorcery is this? CAKE on Pandora?" Tracyn didn't fully understand what she was saying, but handed her the knife anyway. She proceeded to cut herself a reasonably large piece and then take a seat next to Maya. Tracyn shrugged; there was not much of the cake left.

Just then Zer0 walked out of his room, "Greetings Everyone / I wish a good morning / to all of you" he said. Tracyn looked at him "I suppose you want cake as well?" Zer0 shook his head "I have never/ Eaten, is it good? / Will I perish?" Tracyn couldn't believe his ears, had Zer0 really not eaten cake, ever? "You mean you don't remember having eaten cake, right?" Zer0 displayed a smiley emoticon, causing Tracyn to shake his head. "Well, here have some. I did make it." Zer0 picked up the slice turned away from the others who were too preoccupied in their own conversation to notice him and raised his visor, taking a bit of the cake. "It is really good / Better than I can remember / You are truly skilled." Tracyn took a bow, "Glad you like it." He took a bite of his slice and moved toward the living room.

**Axton's perspective**

Axton finished the last bite of his cake, after he swallowed it he addressed the group seated around him "Alright, now that breakfast is done, let's get back to work. We should try and find out Roland has gone off to, I heard stories about him back when I was with Dahl, if he's in trouble then he's in BIG trouble. Then again that Crimson Raider said that Roland had a contingency plan should he go missing that involved the Town's mechanic, I vote we split up; Gaige, Zer0 and Tracyn find this mechanic guy and figure out what Roland had in mind, if you can, execute whatever plan he had. The rest of us will head to the Crimson Raider HQ and search for clues to his whereabouts there."

Axton looked about; Tracyn, Zer0 and Gaige had got up and were getting their gear. He looked to see Maya and Salvador do so as well, but where was Krieg? "You guys seen Krieg anywhe-" just then Axton saw Krieg jump out from behind the sofa in front of him "Nipple Salads!" he yelled. Axton almost tripped over himself in shock "Dammit Krieg, don't do that again, you scared the crap outta me!" Krieg gave him what he was sure was a confused look; he looked at him and shook his head "Never mind now, just come on!"

Axton walked out of the apartment with Maya, Salvador and Krieg in tow, they walked in the direction of the Crimson Raiders HQ. Axton approached the guard, who replied "Vault Hunter, if you're looking for clues to where Commander Roland might be, I suggest you look inside." With that Axton led the team inside; behind a desk was a thin woman with short dark hair. She looked at him and spoke "Greetings." Axton assumed she was saying "Hello" and responded with a nod, followed by a "Ma'am." He watched Salvador looking through various lockers, pocketing change and ammo when he found them, then proclaiming that "Nothing's in here Amigos!"

Axton led the group of Vault Hunters up the stairs, there was a door behind the landing, but it was locked. Axton did not want to have to force open a door when there was an empty room ahead to check out. He walked into the room and saw a large vault. Axton looked into the next room it had a large Holo-Table, but somehow he felt that whatever Roland had left them, would be in the safe. Axton pressed the release, the door opened with a hiss much to his surprise. Inside was an ECHO recorder. Axton watched as Maya and Salvador stared at it incredulously, Maya's eyes were wide "We'll I didn't think it would be that easy!" Axton smiled, he didn't think so either "Hang on, we still don't know what this is, so…" and with that he hit the play button.

A gruff, yet obviously synthesised voice emanated from the device "This is the Firehawk, come to Frostburn Canyon or people will die." Axton cursed, this "Firehawk" has Roland, but who the hell is he? Salvador cursed as well, then continued "Dios mio, the Firehawk is a mass murdering bounty hunter, if he has Roland, then he's dead already!" Axton refused to believe any of this, they were getting Roland back, mass murdering bounty hunter or not, they needed him to kill that b****** jack. "No, it doesn't matter, we are going to get Roland back, we need both him and the Raiders if we are to stop Jack. So this is what we'll do, go to Frostburn Canyon, find the Firehawk, kill him and get Roland back."

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige walked toward where one of the Raiders had told her the town mechanic's workshop was, with both Tracyn and Zer0 on either side. The door to the garage was closed but a quick button press got it open in no time. As they walked in through the door, Gaige noticed that they were standing on some kind of catwalk above the main garage, which was not unlike any other garage/workshop that she had seen. In the centre there was a wrecked car of sorts and a man in beige pants and a green t-shirt with a cap on his head. He leaned back in a chair whilst putting his legs up on a stack of tires; Gaige guessed that he was the town mechanic.

The man noticed them an look up, before proclaiming "Oh crap, is you Hyperion?" He waved his wrench in the air before continuing, but Gaige recognised his voice, this was the man that the Guardian Angel had mentioned to them, this was Scooter. He continued speaking "I heard all of you are robots and you eat metal out of the garbage and stuff. Knew you wired death machines would be coming for me once Roland went missing." He paused looked at his wrench before looking back at them; Tracyn had his hand on his blaster. "Now if you're here to kill me, you should probably know…You'll never take me alive you robotic sumbitch!" He jumped on top of the tires and waved his hands around it some sort of failed boxing/karate pose.

Gaige looked him over, didn't he realise that if they were coming to kill him, they wouldn't _want _to take him alive? Gaige shot him a look, "Do we look like Hyperion loaders to you?" The Mechanic stepped off the tire stack and looked over the three of them "Wait a minute…Well hang me upside down from a telephone pole cover me in honey and leave me to the slow death at the hands of hungry spiderants – ya'll ain't no Hyperion robots, ya'll are Vault Hunters! That's like a unicorn! 'xcept you, and you, y'all just might be Hyperion robots." Gaige noticed he was pointing at both Zer0 and Tracyn. Tracyn looked at him walked a couple steps toward him, picked him up off his feet and spoke "Then, you would be dead already, and that's considering that complete incompetence of your average loader."

Gaige looked at Tracyn "Tracyn, put him down, I'm sure he gets the point." Tracyn looked at her then the whimpering guy in his hands and dropped him "Whatever you say." After Scooter got back on his feet he turned to Gaige "Now you gonna help us out with this Roland situation? I heard them Crimson Raider dudes talkin' bout it. Roland told me if he ever disappeared I was supposed to initiate Plan B, or as I like to call it; Plan Turn-this-city-into-a-floatin-ass-fortress-of-airborne-awesomeness, B. I got some fuel cells around here. You'll need those-oh and you'll need these Eridium here too."

Gaige watched as Scooter retrieves a large piece of Eridium strangely from his pockets and proceeds to offer it to her. Gaige had heard all about Eridium, she heard it had all sorts of effects, but the refined form didn't have any. She reached forward with her metal hand, just to be safe, and picked up the piece of Eridium. Gaige turned around to tell the other two to search the workshop for the fuel cells, but they were already on it. How could she have expected less from a highly skilled Assassin and a Highly Trained Extragalactic Commando?

She looked behind her at a shelf in the corner, it had a whole bunch of strange stuff on it, but something caught her eye, a fuel cell. Tracyn and Zer0 walked downstairs with the fuel cell and handed it to her "Got the other Fuel Cell." proclaimed Tracyn. Scooter seeing the two Fuel Cells in her hands spoke "Got the Fuel Cells? Great! Well let's head to the centre of town and plug those two fuel cells into the ignition primers. You goin' need a third which is why I gave you that here rid-rock- you can buy the last cell from Earl's black market. Careful though Earl's crazy - he ate one of my cars once, yeah the whole car, just, like with a fork."

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 followed Gaige and Tracyn toward the centre of town until the voice of Handsome Jack boomed in his earpiece "Bandits of Sanctuary; I hear a group of new Vault Hunters have arrived in your city. So just turn em' in and you'll be rewarded. Even though you'll probably die trying! That's brilliant two birds with one stone, the Vault Hunters and Sanctuary!" Zer0 tightened his grip on his sniper rifle even adjusting his pace so that he stood directly behind Gaige, seeing that Tracyn had already moved in front of her blaster in hand; if they wanted to turn in any of them, especially Gaige, they would have to go through him.

Zer0 felt some bit of comfort when he heard Private Jessup over his ECHO "Don't worry. Nobody's gonna turn you in – you're our only hope of stopping Jack. Zer0 walked to where the marker on his HUD told him they would have to insert the fuel cell. Gaige hit the button on the hatch's access panel, while he gently slid the fuel cell in. The hatch accepted the cell with a low hissing sound. Soon after he heard Scooter over his ECHO "Roland said we gotta have an exit strategery, just in case he ever disappeared, hence all the fuel cells and what not. Bummer thought – he really wanted to meet y'all. Raiders ain't gonna last without some new blood, and given how y'all shot those bandits up, I'd say you and blood have an extra special relationship. Like cousins takin' a bath together. " Zer0 winced, he did not understand how incestuous behaviour implied the speciality of the relationship. He saw Gaige next to him make a disgusted face and call out "Ew, ew, ew!"

They walked up to the next hatch and repeated the same process before heading to the Black Market to pick up the last one. As they reached the door someone from behind it yelled out "What you want? Just buy something and I'll toss in this crap fuel cell. Just touchin it made two of my fingers rot off. And I only accept Eridium, cash is for clowns girl!" Gaige browsed the menu and chose an SDU upgrade that increased the amount of shotgun ammo she could carry.

The three of them walked up to the third hatch and installed the third fuel cell, repeating the same process. Zer0 heard Scooter's voice over the ECHO again "Hey, thanks for grabbing all that stuff for me. Third degree burns are best taken in shifts." Zer0 hadn't burnt himself through he thanked his armor and shield for that. Scooter continued "Now to see the fruits of your loins – this city's gonna FLY!" The whole ground started to vibrate but the city did not lift off. Scooter responded over their ECHOs "…or not. Damn, now we REALLY gotta find Roland. You know what - " He never finished his sentence as Axton interrupted him "Zer0, Gaige, Tracyn lets move. We know where Roland is; the Fire Hawk has him."

**So yeah, no update for a while, but that's cause I got caught up with life. Kudos to those who know where I got Uj cake from, so if you do say so, and I'll try and include something you say. **


End file.
